Central Library
Below the orange and yellow printed "Kansas City" across the top of this piece is a synopsis of the city's most notable architectural monuments by 1981. Some are still standing and some have since been demolished, but altogether they compile a history of the city with major monuments enlarged along the border of the print and smaller notations nearer the center. At the center is a pen and ink artist's representation of the city's north-south axis that is flattened with the major monuments branching off of it.
Arthur E. Stilwell was a prominent real estate and railroad developer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With an understanding that railroads increased surrounding property values, Stilwell moved to Kansas City in 1887 to establish a real estate company in tandem with the southbound Pittsburg & Gulf railway. In 1900, Stilwell announced plans for a second railroad to go from Kansas City to Topolobampo, Mexico, a Pacific seaport that would connect the Midwest to freight from the South, the East, and vice versa. The artist, Pierre E.
Like thousands of other families in the 19th century, the Hixons took advantage of photography as an affordable way to capture images of loved ones. During his own career, Hixon contributed to the development of a new, less formal type of studio portrait that emphasized individuality and personality rather than relying on standard props or formal poses. In this photograph, the wide-eyed baby is smiling and gazing in the viewer's direction. The floral backdrop provides depth to the photograph.
Like thousands of other families in the 19th century, the Hixons took advantage of photography as an affordable way to capture images of loved ones. During his own career Hixon contributed to the development of a new, less formal type of studio portrait that emphasized individuality and personality rather than relying on standard props or formal poses. In this photograph, the featured baby is smiling wide-eyed against a floral backdrop.
The massive Baroque style sideboard is adorned with ornamental flourishes and whimsical creatures on the front side. The finish is dark in color and shines with an almost bronze quality. The sideboard contains two drawers and two cabinets separated by three columnal outcroppings.
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Weaving is a technique used to make textiles by interlacing thread.
This piece envelops its viewer in a warm and breezy day along a quiet, coastal beach. What appears at first as pleasing striations of blue and yellow with a curious shape up top develop into a beach scene with the familiar kite undulating in the wind. Ironically, the kite looks quite like a royal blue tang (Paracanthurus hepatus), a common marine fish one can imagine being in the water below. Painterly strokes suggest the change in blue hues in the water and sky alike while slashes of yellow and black near the center signify the beach.
Howard Behrens was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1933. Behrens grew up near Washington D.C. , and started drawing at the age of seventeen after being bed ridden from a sledding accident. Behrens earned a Master's degree in painting and sculpture from the University of Maryland. He traveled extensively, proliferating his talent and developing new techniques. Behrens was renowned as a palette knife artist, through his rich, distinctive and textured style.
Keith Mallett, born on 7 October 1948, is an American multi-disciplined artist. Mallett's is an experienced painter, etcher and ceramic artist. Mallett's subject matter ranges from figurative to still life and abstracts. "Beloved" has all the hallmarks of Mallett's figurative work. Here a mother cradles a child to her bosom, as she gazes down lovingly on her infant. The child is swaddled in a brightly colored floral print, with predominant colors of red, green, orange and yellow. The white background accentuates and defines the figures in the foreground.
"Order No. 11", originally painted by George Caleb Bingham, depicts a scene of turmoil taking place during the Civil War. Tensions regarding abolition were high between Kansans and Missourians in the Western Missouri counties. Union General Thomas Ewing Jr. proposed General Order No. 11 to placate the unrest. The order sought to end the fighting by vacating the affected counties completely. Bingham, although pro-Union, was appalled by the prospect and threatened General Ewing with the words "If you execute this order, I shall make you infamous with pen and brush." And this he did.
This panoramic bird's eye view map of Kansas City offers a multi-faceted interpretation of the area depicted. The vantage point characterizes the cartographic style popular for in the 19th century which abandoned scale to depict major developments and expansion possibilities. This map hybridizes a 3D topographical depiction of the area with 2D gridline streets.
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Repousse, or repoussage, is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is shaped by hammering the reverse side of a sheet a metal. On the other side, a low relief design is revealed.
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Sculpture is a three dimensional branch of the visual arts. In traditional forms of sculpture, the materials used were easily accessible and consisted of stone, metal, wood, ceramics.
Georgia O'Keefe has been recognized as the "Mother of American Modernism". The iris was favored by O'Keefe and played a key role in her work for many years. In Black Iris III, the representation abstracts the subject matter by enlarging the petals far beyond life size. The medium for the original painting was oil on canvas and is dated 1926.
Rebecca Barker is a painter from Ohio whose "childhood appreciation for quilts and country life inspires the subjects she paints today" (-www.barkerquiltscapes.com). Each quiltscape takes a quilt pattern and pairs its color palette with an accompanying landscape. Here, a red, white, and blue starburst patterned quilt hangs on a laundry line outside. Beyond it are rows of a crop and farm on the horizon that is framed by the clothespins holding the quilt in place.
This pair of bookends has a deceiving quality as its cast iron (and thus weighty) fabrication is disguised by flora inspired embellishments. The pieces maintain their dark slate color with silver coloring worn onto the edges of the embellishments. The design rests on a low-profile "L" shape. There is discreet foam matting on the bottom side to protect against placement damage.
A matching set of cast iron ornamental bookends. These classical style bookends feature a green patina, and have an intricate leaf and swirl design. Each pair of the ornamental bookend portions are anchored to an "L" shape black base with a discreet foam matting for placement protection.
The Punch Magazine, or London Charavari, was a satirical British weekly magazine established in 1841. This large scale reproduction of the original cartoon depicts a caricature of an American Bull, mapped out into marketable cuts of meat, tossing a British butcher into the air. A knife sharpener and current prices of meat are splayed out around the butcher. Centered at the bottom of the piece are the words "'Bos Americanus;' or Yankee Beef and British Butcher." The work referenced the impact of British reliance on Northern American beef which increased during the 1870s.
"Bring Downtown BACK!-New Arena Symbolizes New Day for Kansas City" is an enlarged reproduction print depicting a paid political advertisement that ran in the August 2nd, 2004 issue of the Kansas City Star. The advertisement notes it was paid for by Citizens for a Downtown Arena, Lee A. Moore, C.P.A., Treasurer. The graphics include a caricature of the downtown landscape which highlights many architectural landmarks such as the Kauffman Center of Performing Arts, River Market area, Sprint Center, Union Station, Western Auto, etc.
The use of bronze became popular in 15th century Europe as a means to bridge ornament in sculpture with a faster rate of production. Artists employed the lost-wax method where wax models of sculpture would be encased by a mold wherein molten bronze would be poured over the wax model and once set the wax would be melted out, leaving a bronze production of the sculpture. With reusable molds and the availability and durability of bronze this method allowed artists to reproduce sculpture and objects like this serving bowl at a faster rate and higher quantity for a flourishing Europe.