Inside the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Chance Encounter 
by George Segal (1989)

I was still in a sculpture frame of mind when I entered the Nelson-Atkins Museum proper. I headed over to the contemporary art galleries, where I was immediately drawn to Chance Meeting by George Segal. (His Rush Hour is in the Sculpture Garden, and I had spent a good amount of time admiring it.) 

Segal's path to becoming an artist was less than a straight line. He grew up working on his family's chicken farm, and he and his wife Helen had a poultry farm of their own after he graduated from NYU with a degree in art education. Segal's art and agrarian lifestyle came together in 1957 when the Segals' farm was the location of a "Happening" or, as his website explains, "live art with an environmental sensibility." I wish I could have been there!

Farming is a tough life; so is making a living as an artist. Segal taught art as a way of making ends meet. He had begun to explore sculpture as a medium when one of his adult ed art students brought a box of dry plaster bandages to class. Segal took them home and began to experiment. He wet them and applied them to parts of his own body. With his wife's help, he created an entire seated figure, eventually adding a chair, table and window frame to the work. With Man at a Table, Segal's signature style had been created. Segal frequently uses friends and family as his models. In fact, the woman in high heels in Close Encounter is his daughter Rena. For more on Segal, click here. And to see his Man at a Table, click here. 

Museum Guard by Duane Hanson (1975) 

As I was strolling the galleries, I was once again tricked by Duane Hanson when I came upon his Museum Guard.  His hyperrealistic work gets me every time. (Once at MOMA I excused myself for standing in front of one of his sculptures during a docent tour. She was so realistic that I didn't process the fact that she was sitting in a chair with a dog at her feet.) 

Like Segal, Hanson's work comes directly from the bodies of his models. He creates a cast and then paints the figure, warts, wrinkles, veins and all. The sculpture is then outfitted with real clothing and a high quality hairpiece to complete the effect. It's easy to just revel in the realism of his work, take some pictures and move on without thinking about Hanson's message. But he's providing some social commentary as well as a fun art experience. "My art is not about fooling people," Hanson said. "It's the human attitudes I'm after -- fatigue, a bit of frustration, rejection. To me, there is a kind of beauty in all this." For more of Hanson's work, click here. 

The Lynch Family by Joseph Hirsch (1946)

In case you're beginning to wonder, I did see some paintings that captured my attention. Joseph Hirsch was an artist known for his social commentary, particularly with respect to civic corruption and racial injustice. He said, "In my painting I want to castigate the things I hate and paint monuments to what I feel is noble."

Hirsch's Lynch Family  was created in response to the 1946 lynching of two black men and their wives in Monroe, Georgia. It's an image that will stay with me for a long time. The anguish of the woman -- whose husband has just been lynched -- is palpable and is contrasted by the liveliness of her child. Life goes on.

While the painting itself is incredibly powerful, the impact was magnified by its pairing with a poem by Glenn North that was inspired by the work. It reads, in part:

"Went out swingin last night, Baby

hope you didn't wait up for me. 

Said I was swinging all night, Baby

did you stay up late for me?

I wasn't swingin in no joint, Darlin

I was out on the limb of a tree..."

To read the entire poem, click here and go to page 16. (I had to dig deep to find a copy, but it was worth it. His "How to Mourn a Brown Boy" starts on the next page and will rip your heart out.) To hear North recite the poem, click here. And to learn more about Hirsch and his work, click here. Who knew that he created the first poster for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman? 

Hollywood by Thomas Hart Benton (1937-38)

Being in Kansas, I would feel remiss if I didn't include a work by one of the best-known Midwestern artists -- Thomas Hart Benton. Benton wasn't what I would consider a typical Midwesterner, though. His father was a U.S. senator, so he spent a good amount of time in D.C. when he was young. He studied at the School at the Art Institute of Chicago before popping over to Paris for a few years. During WWI, he worked as a "camofleur," painting Navy ships as they entered Norfolk Harbour to ensure the camouflage painting was done properly. When it was finally time for him to develop his own style, he gravitated towards Regionalism, a movement known for depicting realistic scenes of Midwestern life. 

Hollywood obviously doesn't depict a Midwestern scene, but it definitely caught my eye. In 1937, Life sponsored Benton's trip to Hollywood to create a work for the magazine. This painting has it all -- the scantily clad starlet with multiple cameras pointing her way; other actresses working on their hair and make-up; a blazing building being filmed from rafts afloat in some kind of man-made water. There's even a cowboy and Indian scene being shot in the far left hand side of the painting. To Benton, the work focused on "the machinery of the industry." When the folks at Life saw the work, they said "thanks but no thanks." The images were considered too risque for a family magazine. Ironically, the painting made its way into the magazine's pages anyway after it won a significant award in a competition covered by Life. So far as I know, the magazine didn't lose readership as a result. For a closer look at the painting, click here. For more on Benton, click here. 

If you happen to be in the Kansas City area, I couldn't recommend a visit to the Nelson-Atkins more highly. Click here for the Museum's website. Admission is always free.