The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is the preeminent art museum in both Kansas City, Missouri and in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is considered one of the finest art collections in the United States.

History

Kansas City Star publisher William Rockhill Nelson was dissatisfied with Kansas City's cultural atmosphere. ^* When he died in 1915, his will provided that upon the deaths of his wife and daughter, the proceeds of his entire estate would go to purchasing artwork for public enjoyment. Around the same time, miserly former schoolteacher Mary Atkins bequested $300,000 to the city to establish an art museum. Combined with other, similar bequests, Kansas City had enough money and resources to establish and amass a viable art collection.

Ground was broken on the present site of the museum in 1930, and it first opened in 1933. Being the height of the Great Depression, the worldwide art market was flooded with pieces for sale, but very few buyers. As such, the museum's buyers found a vast market open to them. Armed with these resources, the acquisitions grew quickly. Within very little time, the Nelson-Atkins had one of the most sizeable art collections in the country.

From 1954 through 2000, the Jewel Ball, Kansas City's debutante ball, took place every June in the main hall. The ball has always benefited both the museum and the Kansas City Symphony.

In the fall of 2005, the museum opened the Ford Learning Center, an educational pavillion. It is the first addition to the existing building since 1933. In 2007, the 165,000 square foot Bloch Building will open. Another new addition, it will provide the museum with the ability to put its full collection out for public view.

Collections

Asia

The museum is distinguished (and widely celebrated) for its extensive collection of Asian art, especially that of Imperial China. Most of it was purchased for the museum in the early 20th century by Laurence Sickman, then a Harvard fellow in China. In addition to Chinese art, the collection includes pieces from Japan, India, Iran, Indonesia, Korea, and Southeast, and South Asia.

European painting

The museum's European painting collection is also highly-prized. It include works by Caravaggio, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Petrus Christus, El Greco, Guercino, Titian, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, as well as Impressionists Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh, among others.

American painting

The American painting collection includes the largest collection open to the public of works by Thomas Hart Benton, who lived in Kansas City. Among its collection are masterpieces by George Bellows, George Caleb Bingham, Frederic Church, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent.

Kansas City Sculpture Park

Outside on the museum's immense lawn, the Kansas City Sculpture Park contains the largest collection of "monumental bronzes" by Henry Moore in the United States. The park also includes works by Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin, George Segal and Mark di Suvero, among others. Beyond these, the park (and the museum itself) is well known for Shuttlecocks, a four-part outdoor steel sculpture of badminton shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

Photography

In 2006, Hallmark Cards chairman Donald J. Hall, Sr., donated the entire Hallmark Photographic Collection, spanning the history of photography from 1839 to the present day. It includes works from photographers such as Southworth & Hawes, Carleton Watkins, Timothy O'Sullivan, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Harry Callahan, Lee Friedlander, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman, among others.

Other

In addition, the museum also has collections of European and American sculpture, decorative arts and works on paper, Egyptian art, Greek and Roman art, modern and contemporary paintings and sculpture, pre-Columbian art, and the art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. As well, the museum houses a major collection of English pottery and another of miniature paintings.

See also

• Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

External links

• Official website

Kansas City metropolitan area | Art museums and galleries in the United States | Museums in Missouri | Sculpture galleries