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Madeleine Sienkiewicz 2013 Painting The painting is suppose to be inspired by the symbolist movement with it’s dark tones and nature. She was also inspired by another art movement that was originated in Europe in the 19th century, this is known as romanticism. The craftsmanship of the painting can be a clear indication that the artist was heavily influenced by this period of the arts. This can be seen in the diverse yet commonly dark variations of the colors included in the red or blue Outside influences other than art periods archived in history are present in this piece as well. The artist wanted to include the mixture of grotesque and extremely unpleasant subject matter, supporting the techniques used in the symbolist and romanticism movement, which in this case is displayed using the imagery of animal remains. This can be seen by the presentation of the animal skull. The Conversion
Julie Farstad Oil on clayboard 2014 In The Conversion, viewers stumble upon a mystical moment: the main figure, a doll, lies on the ground in awe of an angel sweeping toward her as her unicorn stands by as a witness. This scene is reminiscent of Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio’s work The Conversion of St. Paul, created in 1601. The doll has traditionally functioned as a representation of the human figure. Typically a companion to children, the doll suggests a theme of identity and childhood in the painting. Farstad’s use of the Play-Doh® trees, the inclusion of a unicorn, and the implementing of a vibrant color palette suggest a mythically playful environment. Despite these symbols the doll provides another message—laying on her back in an unsettling position with legs spread. The vulnerability in her position alludes to desperation. A possible explanation might be found in the doll’s perceived longing to be something greater than herself. Historically, the unicorn is commonly used to symbolize innocence and purity in art, but its legend is one of myth and mystery likened to the unknown location of the landscape. Farstad’s painting stems from craft culture through its use of Play-Doh® trees, and in her method of hyper-realization of her characters. Her references to classical compositions evoke the conversation of contemporary feminist theory through the use of a doll as the protagonist. Untitled I and II
Miguel Rivera Mixed Media 2013 Miguel Rivera is an artist and professor based in Kansas City, Missouri. In his work, Rivera uses images of viruses to represent the anxiety and fear felt in Mexico as a result of the uncertainty of personal safety and constant potential for violence. Rivera’s work embodies these feelings of fear through its imagery, use of color, and violent mark making. Mexico’s past and present is characterized by violence and unrest, as depicted in the prints from the 1947 portfolio “Las Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana,” also exhibited here. Departing from the narrative quality of the prints, Rivera uses nondescript imagery to communicate the mental state of civil unrest. In keeping with his artistic training, Rivera makes work that moves towards self-expression and away from the imagery associated with Mexican nationalism. Rivera deals with current, immediate issues such as the violence associated with drug cartels and the brutality of some religious practices he witnessed in Mexico as a child. At times, Rivera’s use of personal, self-expressive ideas is at odds with the aesthetic usually associated with Mexican artists. Although important to Rivera, these traditional motifs do not define his art making. Untitled, Act IV
Ben Harle Unfired Clay, Water 2013 Living and working in Kansas City, a place rich in architectural ceramic ornamentation, Ben Harle creates work that references the decay of architecture. Shown in multiple exhibitions in Kansas City, Harle’s work includes aspects of ceramic history, architecture and performance. In this ephemeral work, Harle erodes a Classical pier with water. Over time the pier, made of unfired clay, slowly weathers and weakens until it begins to crumble. The water falls from above onto the clay structures. With exaggerated speed, Untitled, Act IV mimics the erosion that happens to architecture when exposed to the elements. Using unfired clay allows for this transformation of architecture to occur rapidly. |
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Unknown Unknown Sculpture The creator and the title of the piece may be unknown, but it’s origin lies within the Mexican culture, specifically on the autumn holiday known as The Day of the Dead. This holiday occurs on November 1st and lasts until November 2nd. The piece is suppose to represent what is called a Diablo, which means “Devil” in the Spanish language. Pieces such as these are used as props and art to celebrate the holiday. Unfortunately, though these pieces and others have been used for harmless decoration, the rest of the world sees the use of these pieces as satanic and demonic or in other words, a celebration of the devil. Despite the criticism these devils are represented in many different shapes, colors and styles. They are constantly evolving as the future unfolds and continues to be an iconic decoration of the Mexican culture in their celebration of the dead. Love Me
Ghada Amer Lithograph with hand-sewn elements Collaboration with Reza Farkhondeh 2006 In Love Me, Amer has placed a well-known Disney princess, Aurora, in a compositional triptych. She hovers in a greenery of painterly flowers behind text. The text, “Love Me,” is comprised of plain, black dashes referencing the use of embroidery. Amer utilizes the ‘unexpressively’ stitched text as the means for introducing a feminine quality to the traditionally masculine field of painting. The use of a Disney princess suggests a theme of playful fantasy -- yet the text alludes to a much darker tone of alienation, as the princess stands alone and vulnerable. It is unusual for Amer to use a distressed female figure longing for love; the artist usually focuses on the empowerment of the female form. This particular print also invites the viewer to oblige the texts’ request to love Aurora, placing the viewer in an uncomfortable position. Head cocked and hands behind her back, Aurora stands awaiting your response. Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana
Various Artists 4/84 16/84 25/84 56/84 Suite of 85 woodblock prints 1947 These four prints from the 1947 portfolio “Las Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana” (Prints of the Mexican Revolution) depict scenes from the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). These images, created by artists of El Taller de Grafica Popular (The Popular Graphics Workshop), furthered a Mexican national identity that began with the works of José Guadalupe Posada. Considered the father of modern Mexican printmaking, Posada influenced the style and imagery of Mexican art of the early 1900s, which became known as the Mexican School of Painting or the Mexican Muralist Movement. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing today, many works made by Mexican artists are questioned because they do not maintain the traditional Mexican imagery or style of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Posada, which was popular through the 1950s. Although Rivera’s work does not match the aesthetic of the prints of the “Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana,” there are similar themes in the works, such as fear and violence; the prints of the Revolution depict this through charged imagery while Rivera embodies this aggression through his mark making. Orange Store Front
Christo Lithograph and Mixed Media 1963 Orange Store Front is a part of Christo’s series “Store Fronts.” This series is extremely important to Christo’s body of work, representing his shift in interest from sculptural objects to architecture. In the “Store Fronts” series, architecture is transformed in the lithograph by adding brightly colored paint and hanging fabric in the store window, concealing the objects inside. This collage over lithograph, a printing technique, is one of many in the series. This was an ongoing project for Christo from 1963-68. Christo often used his prints, collages and drawings to fund larger, more ambitious sculptures and installations, such as wrapping one million square feet of the Australian shoreline. This series of two-dimensional work is representational of actual storefronts built out of scrap wood and sections of demolished buildings. Christo’s storefronts come in many different colors: beige, pink, green and bright orange. |
Larry McAnany
So Cal No 2 Oil on Canvas 2013 So Cal No 2 comes from “Home,” the latest in a series of paintings from Larry McAnany. After many springs witnessing an increase in the local bird population, McAnany says he realized how many birds made Kansas City home as a result of their migration. Through these observations McAnany uses this work to discuss home as a universal experience. So Cal No 2 depicts a man-made bird-home removed from it’s context, and repositioned as the possible home of any living thing. He developed his spring-like color palette for this series in part from a trip to Todi, Italy, where he went to study at the International School of the Arts, and from his time spent bird watching. McAnany is a life-long resident of Kansas City, and graduated from the University of Missouri Kansas City with a B.A. in 1997, and from the Kansas City Art Institute with a B.F.A. in 2001. |
Terry Allen
Juarez Suite Lithograph 1976 Terry Allen’s “Juarez Suite” places the viewer in intimate domestic settings, emphasized by the small square space the images are printed on. Many of the images contain text, stemming from Allen’s passion for poetry and songwriting. This passion is manifested in the “Juarez Suite,” one of many catalogues in which Allen includes personal poetry and song lyrics on the same page or next to an image of his artwork. Allen’s work in the “Juarez Suite” includes a variety of mediums ranging from sculptural installation pieces, to photography. Terry Allen has maintained a connection to the Great Plains his entire life. Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up in Lubbock, Texas. He received a B.A. in arts education from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1966, taught at a number of institutions, and has shown work across the United States. In the 1990s, Allen was commissioned to create the controversial work Modern Communication, located outside the police communication headquarters in Kansas City. |
Noelia Ferrer
Ace Acrylic on canvas 2014 Japanese ukiyo-e (literally “images of the floating world”) woodblock prints are the inspiration for Ace. Both the subject matter and the composition’s flattened space are based on the aesthetics of traditional ukiyo-e. Beautiful women are common subjects for such Japanese prints. Symbolic choices such as the crane, traditionally related to longevity, and the cherry blossom background, related to impermanence, are also rooted in traditional Japanese imagery. Ferrer’s painting could be described as a modern day example of Japonisme, but really her work synthesizes much more than just Japanese influences. Ferrer’s Cuban roots, upbringing in downtown Miami, misplaced feeling living in Midwestern America, and interests in Asian culture all influence the collage-like aspects of her work and her creative process. The water which keeps everything afloat in this painting is reminiscent of the real-world ocean. For Ferrer, it is the ocean which holds all of her geographic life-ties together, or keeps them apart. The artist states that painting is often a way to overcome difficulties in her life. This work’s large size and bright color palette contribute to this idea, increasing its visual strength and power. Big, bright, present, and adaptive, this painting is Ferrer’s ace card. Peregrine Honig
Mascaras De Madres Suite of 5 etchings with Chine Colle 2013 Between 1976 and 1983 Argentina’s last dictatorship kidnapped an estimated 30,000 Argentinian civilians, classifying them as disappeared. The event is known as “The Dirty War” and none of the civilians were found. Babies that were born to those kidnapped were taken from their mothers and adopted by strangers. Protests against the dictatorship were led by the mothers and grandmothers of the missing who searched in vain for their lost loved ones. In Mascaras de Madres Peregrine Honig asks what it means when a stranger becomes your mother. Have you ever looked at your parents and wondered “How in the world did I come from them?” As an exchange artist in Argentina, Peregrine Honig was faced with a similar question upon learning of The Dirty War. With the help of Landfall Press, Honig made Mascaras de Madres in response to the women she encountered on her trip. Mascaras de Madres means “Mother Masks” and shows five mothers and five babies. Like in a dream, the viewer is asked to imagine themselves in the role of a fox being raised by a human, or a baby hugged by a slippery snake in disguise. What if your mother was a cat all along! Or you were a bird that thought you were a person. How would you feel if you realized that you had been a giraffe and not your mother’s child? In this way, Honig attempts to visualize the human experience of The Dirty War in a primal, emotional way. |
Kunigoshi (?)
Untitled (woman at table) Woodblock print Circa 19th Century This is an example of an ukiyo-e woodblock print. Ukiyo-e literally means “pictures of the floating world.” Ukiyo-e is also known as tsuyo-no yo, literally “the world of dew.” These terms relate to the thin, delicate lines, light colors, and ample negative space of the images, but more directly refer to their transient, fleeting subject matter, and the impermanence of the pleasures exhibited within—the “floating world.” Bijin-ga are one genre of ukiyo-e prints, which feature beautiful people as their subjects. The person focused on was almost always a woman. She could be a geisha, courtesan, prostitute, shop girl, or any other type of figure. In many historic Japanese prints, the woman’s fashion, mannerisms, way of carrying herself, and talents all contributed to her lovely beauty. The beauty illustrated here appears to be practicing the traditional talent of painting or calligraphy. Reginald Marsh
Coney Island Etching 1935 It is the thirties. The era of the flappers has passed and the high point of America’s Great Depression is happening. People are looking for a way to escape the nation’s economic problems, and cheap leisure activities like burlesque shows, movie theaters, and family outings are on the rise. After World War I the daily lives of Americans changed. In New York, Reginald Marsh observed these changes, recording the lives of his neighbors. Marsh was not alone in his effort; he was part of a group of artists known as the Regionalists. Together they helped to make permanent those fleeting moments of the early twentieth century. In Coney Island, an energetic mass of working-class bodies playfully wrestles across the beach. Women entered the work force during World War I, but after the war, the femme-fatale came to symbolize the struggle and fear men felt when trying to find new jobs upon returning home. Women had become the dangerous Other and were seen as destructive opponents to traditional male roles. In Coney Island, Reginald Marsh gives humorous witness to the growing anxiety between the sexes in 1930s America. In his prints and paintings Marsh found a way to make the grotesque desirable and the ugly laughable. |