I took a long lunch and revisited the Kemper hoping to
find a docent available. I was told that docent visits are by
appointment only.
The woman at the desk asked if she could help me and I was
only too happy to let her know I had some questions about how
two particular pieces of art came to be hanging in the museum.
She asked which two and when I told her she agreed that the
woman with the red face was a piece she didn't care for at all,
either.
But HOW did it land here, I asked.
It ends up that the creator, Jaimie Warren, GIFTED it to the
museum.
Jaimie lives in Kansas City, is more of a performance artist
than a photographer (as I think of the term photographer) and
does workshops in collaboration with the museum, especially
programs aimed at interesting children in art. As best I
understand it Jaimie does her 'performance art' by setting the
stage for herself then hands her camera off to someone else who
takes the photograph. Is THAT a being a photographer? Hmmmmm.
The very helpful woman at the desk further informed me that
the Kemper Museum has a team who recommends what purchases to
make to the the acquisitions team who in turn make
recommendations to Mr. Kemper who writes the checks and buys the
art. The Kemper is privately owned and open to all, free of
charge.
Desk Helper completely understood my interest in how
something so unarty (my words) could be hanging in a museum.
She assured me that many voices and many sets of eyes look at
each piece acquired.
Gifting. That answered a lot of my questions.
So far as Tina Barney's wedding photograph is concerned, I
sent an email to a friend who is a docent at the Kemper and she
wrote this in reply:
That's a piece by
Tina Barney. Love her or hate her. Anyway, she takes
photos that are posed to look as if they're NOT
posed--sort of a huge snapshot. She chooses the
clothing (bridesmaid ca. 1965?) and hair, and then goes
for a story telling shot. When I've toured it with
kids, I've asked them to tell me what's going on--who's
mad at whom, etc. They love it. Great photography?
I'll let you be the judge of that.
|
Knowing it's a staged photo completely changes my
perception of it. It doesn't move it to the level of art in my
mind but I can appreciate that the photographer was striving
to say something, get a rise out of the viewer, that it wasn't
an accident blown up really, really big and hung on the museum
wall.
These pieces, by the way, are part of the exhibit called Make
it Strange, Developing a Medium which presents images curated in
order to show photography's ability to represent things for
'what else they are', the distanced approach to reality that
offers viewers an alternate mode of seeing. It hopes to
demonstrate how photography disrupts perception with a
defamiliarizing effect.
*******
I feel very fortunate to live so close to two excellent
museums, The Nelson-Atkins Bloch Museum and The Kemper. By
living close it's easy to take advantage of what they exhibit,
that they are open free to the public makes it almost criminal
not to go. To put your eyes so close to a painting as to see the
brush strokes that made it, to see fingerprints of the artist
who sculpted a piece or to gaze deep into the tones of a
photographic print made by a master is an overwhelming
experience. I am not ashamed to say I have left these museums
with tears in my eyes more often than not.
********
Kim, I wrote that I was uneducated in art not with any shame
but to show point of reference...basically that my views come
from what I see, read and think about what I've seen and read,
not from having spent hours in a classroom. I love that all the
world...books, magazines, the web, fellow artists, museums,
galleries and my own brain are my classroom. I try to learn a
little something every day and I'm usually successful.
Lea
