After we left the museum at Prairiefire, we went north toward downtown Kansas City, and rejoined at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. We enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria (a dining spot I can happily recommend), and then split up to enjoy the museum.
Many of us were drawn outside to the enormous space behind the museum, to see some new-to-me sculpture.
The weather was chillier than the previous several days, but still gorgeous.
I had seen Renaissance paintings of faces composed of fruits and vegetables. I did not realize on the 17th that these are not original conceptions, but are direct copies of a set of such paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. These sculptures, like the original paintings, are entitled the Four Seasons.
Is it art? Not in my opinion. A huge amount of work, yes. A clever original idea, perhaps, to take the forms of nature and use them to imitate the forms of the human face/head. Personally, I don't see that cleverness and a huge amount of work are sufficient for a creation to be art...........
But, whatever, here they are, in their enormous complexity and enormous size.
A mind-blowing amount of work.........
This one was my favorite. I wonder if any of it is actually natural material.
My parents, watching the rest of us, not subjecting their knees to all of those stairs. Thanks for thinking of so many interesting and fun things for us to do, during Birthday Week! :-)
I discovered Thin as Vanity last year, and wanted to visit her again this year.
I'm still in awe that anyone could create something like this with a paintbrush. Wow. Art? No question, in my mind........... Her brow ridges, her cheekbones, her hair!, her earrings.......... Wow.
Pulling myself away from Sarita..........
I love Charles and Ray Eames' chairs. I am sitting on a chair that pays homage to this one, as I type. Clean, plain, comfortable, elegant..................
I did not know the origin of their work in molded plywood.........
Another work that, amazingly, was produced with a paintbrush. Richard Estes.
I don't think I'd seen this piece before. I was mostly interested in how hard it was to photograph -- getting a clear enough background to get their faces, particularly, without interference.... Non-trivial.
I didn't read any info about it. Their faces are life masks, I suspect. Their eyes are closed, which contributes to the odd feeling this piece projects. Here they are, standing close as if in animated conversation, but their eyes and mouths are closed, and their faces are expressionless. Dressed as for an ordinary day, but entirely in black. Creepy.
Motionless, colorless, surrounded by the brightly-colored work that was common in the second half of the 20th century.................
Let's move along, shall we?
LIking the colors and forms in this painting by Wayne Thibauld.
Speaking of what can be done/expressed with paint -- I like the way the thickness of the paint itself has been used.
This is Marion Bloch, who, with her husband, donated the modern wing of the museum. A Warhol, as you'd think.
Not sure I think this is art, but here it is. A piece of metal, punched full of holes. Painted orange, mounted out from the wall, so we can enjoy the shadow. Even though it was (apparently stiff) metal, you could see it moving, just a bit, in and out.
It's orange, and it's about light and shadow.
Speaking of light and shadow -- my other favorite thing discovered last year. Isn't this gorgeous? Tiffany, of course.
And yet more light and shadow -- a polo weathervane.
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