22 November 2024
Art

Wichita Art Museum

We went to the Wichita Art Museum (in Wichita, Kansas, naturally) primarily because of an Annie Leibovitz exhibit. It was an excuse to stretch our legs on our drive from Oklahoma City, OK, to Topeka, KS.

The Leibovitz exhibit Work featured “a new group of photographs highlighting current events and exceptional figures in today’s world.” The exhibit, however, clearly included lots of photos from the archives — many were her iconic photos that have been seen a thousand times before (think pregnant Demi Moore naked on the cover of Vanity Fair). Many photos also had no identifying information or context, too. I personally felt these factors took away from the exhibit, but as usual, Doug enjoyed the exhibit more than I did.

There were some nice pieces in the rest of the museum. Of course, my favorites were two Chihulys – Confetti Chandelier, which was nicely located and really captured the light, and Persian Seaform Installation. The latter was installed in such a way that it was both a ceiling to look up at (see cover photo) and a floor you could walk on and look down upon (but only if you removed your shoes!).

Dale Chihuly’s Confetti Chandelier.
I guess if you know, you know. If you don’t, you can google it. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
“Annie went on the road with Patti [Smith] and her band” is all you need to know about these photos from the mid-1970s. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
Andy Warhol. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
Annie left Keith Haring with a white living room set, and in less than an hour he transformed it and himself. They then went out into the cold streets of New York for some photographic fun. 1986. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
Steve Martin photographed for the cover of Rolling Stone with his newly acquired Franz Kline painting. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
I assume that’s Philip Johnson in front of his Connecticut Glass House. When we saw this exhibit I had tickets to see the house in the near future (Doug had already seen it). Anyway, it’s fun when things connect like that. From the Annie Leibovitz Work exhibit.
The Homesteader, N.C. Wyeth, 1930. Painted as an illustration for a story in the Ladies Home Journal.
Eva Green, Robert Henri, 1907. We visited his home and museum in Nebraska earlier in the year.
Sunlight on Brownstones, Edward Hopper, 1956. Even a sunny Hopper painting is still bleak and lonely, somehow.
The museum made a sitting/self-station inspired by the Leibovitz Keith Haring photo above.

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