Category: Visual
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At Home With Napoleon
A synergy of image, color and sound greets the viewer to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s special exhibition, “Napoleon: Power and Splendor.” Replicating the ruler’s so-called “Imperial Household” are flooring designs recreated from authentic carpets. Walking from gallery to gallery, against backdrops of rich teal blue, burnished burgundy and forest green you encounter dozens of paintings, sketches, mosaics, architectural drawings and panoramas by Napoleon’s court painters.
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An Inclusive Picture of American Modernism
Bruce Hartman, an accomplished local museum director and collector, is helping Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, expand the canon of American art history. Hartman’s recent loans of exceptional, if little known, 20th-century Native American works from his personal collection have given Crystal Bridges’ Modern permanent collection galleries a refreshed look while showing the way forward for a more inclusive, nuanced picture of American Modernism.
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“The Life We Live,” at the Kansas City Society for Contemporary Photography Gallery
Poignant stories of connection between family, friends and self are woven through the images in the current exhibit, “The Life We Live” at the Society for Contemporary Photography Gallery in the Shops at Union Hill.
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Artist to Watch: Baldemar Rivas
One world might not be big enough for Baldemar Rivas. He’s a Kansas City transplant with California roots. The son of immigrants, he celebrates his Mexican heritage but doesn’t want to be known for it. And his art . . . he’s not tethering it to one realm or another, either.
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The Job: Douglas Drake
Veteran art dealer Doug Drake no longer maintains a brick-and-mortar gallery space, but he is still very much in the art game. Following 20 years running Douglas Drake Gallery and subsequent stints in development and fundraising, Drake, 74, has spent the last 10 years working as an independent art consultant, operating Drake Fine Art out of his home in Prairie Village, Kansas.