Exploring the Nelson-Atkins' Sculpture Park

With Shuttlecock by Claes Oldenburg and
Coosie van Bruggen (1994)

My first post-vaccination air travel found me heading to Kansas, the place of my birth. While the trip was for family reasons, I immediately began researching the art to be seen on my journey. And what art there is. The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City is destination worthy for any art lover. But you don't have to be an art aficiondo to enjoy the Museum's Donald J. Hall Sculpture Garden. 

The Sculpture Garden features a huge green where people were lounging on blankets and kids were playing. It was this expanse of lawn that inspired Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen to create the four Shuttlecocks that have become the Museum's signature image. 

Oldenburg and van Bruggen envisioned the Museum -- an imposing neo-classical structure -- as a badminton net with playing fields stretching out on either side of the building. Each of the four Shuttlecocks is positioned a bit differently as if it had just been batted over the net. Weighing in at 5500 pounds each, I suspect the placement of these works was a little more difficult than that sounds. 

Sheep Piece by Henry Moore (1971-19720
and Ferment by Roxy Paine (2011)

The Museum owns one of the world's largest collections of works by Henry Moore. In fact, the Garden was originally called the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden. It seems apt since visitors can enjoy 12 of Moore's works without setting foot in the museum. But when the Hall Family Foundation gifted its collection of 57 works by Moore to the Museum, the Garden was renamed the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Garden. (FYI, Hall was the Chairman of Hallmark Cards, which is based in Kansas City.)   

Moore's sculptures often include two slightly separate forms representing a mother and child, and it is thought the forms in this work might be an ewe with a lamb. Moore was inspired to create the sculpture after watching some sheep outside his bucolic home in England. When he began sketching the animals, he said he viewed them as "rather shapeless balls of wool, with a head and four legs. Then I began to realize that underneath all that wool was a body which moved in its own way, and that each sheep had its individual character."  And so Moore's sheep have been shorn. 

Roxy Paine's Ferment is one of the Museum's most recent acquisitions. Paine's stainless steel "dendroids" are intended to represent "the collapse of industry upon nature." (As I'm sure you know, something can be referred to as "dendritic" if it has branches forming a tree.) I liked the crispness of the work against the bright blue sky, although I suspect it would be very striking in snow as well. To read the Museum's description of the work, click here.  

Detail from Standing Figures (30 Figures)
by Marina Abakanowiz (1994-1998)

I made a beeline for the unsettling yet beautiful Standing Figures (30 Figures) by Magdalena Abakanowicz. The artist's work often features crowds of headless figures. Some are life-sized like the 6' tall sculptures at Nelson-Atkins. (They would, of course, be taller with their heads intact.) Others tower over the viewer. (Click here to see her Big Figures.)  And although 30 sculptures is an impressive number, she has created larger scaled works as well. Her Hurma includes 250 figures. It's mind boggling. Click here to see images of her "crowds." And ror a terrific article about Abakanowicz' intentions behind her crowd sculptures, click here. Finally, to read more about the artist, click here. Can you tell I'm taken with her work? 

Detail from Storage by Judith Shea (1999)

I'll leave you with a detail from Storage by Judith Shea. (The entire sculpture is comprised of five figures.) Wow. Tucked in next to a wall of the Museum, I fear many visitors might not see this fabulous work. But that could actually be consistent with the artist's intent. Shea has said of the figures in Storage, "They lean propped up against the wall essentially as if forgotten or stored. The truncated clothing forms provided an essence--no extremities, no movement, it was a way to express the essence of human presence." 

I wasn't surprised to learn that Shea had trained as a fashion designer at Parsons. The coat in Storage looks like you could slip right into it (although the bronze wouldn't be so comfy).  It wasn't long, though, before she left the fashion world, which she found restrictive. 

While I would welcome the chance to see any of Shea's work in person, her Legacy Collection is on my "must see" list of art.. Shea lived and worked near the World Trade Center on 9/11. In her Legacy Collection series, her dust and debris-covered people look skyward, unable to process what they are witnessing. Having watched the Towers fall myself, these works speak to my heart. To see more of Shea's work, click here. 

For more on the Nelson-Atkins Museum, click here. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page to get to the list of the Museum's collections, including the Sculpture Garden. Happy viewing!