Autumn Leaf and Oldenburg Kleenix at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art on the campus of the Kansas City Art Institute in the fall of 2008.

November 1, 2008
To see this article in new Window: Art Tourist at the Kemper

KANSAS CITY, MO — Narrative photography. Boringly filled with obvious subject matter, then more painted images of the human figure. All in a very interesting big, open gallery space that didn't have square walls. The pleasant part was the space and the possibility that the works would go on and on forever because the end of the room wasn't obvious.

Just yesterday, I walked through and I can't think of a single piece in that big space I liked. I didn't like the show of narrative photography by Lafore in the other small square exhibition space but do remember there was a photo of a teenage girl in her underwear calling a falcon to her arm.

Okay, in the big space there was a Marina Abramowitz headless man. I've now already seen more than 100 of those in my lifetime. I don't need to see another. There was a photograph by the German photographer XX that I think are clear and nice to look at. Contemporary work is trying so hard to be complex it becomes Victorian wall paper — busy — with every element yelling at a viewer with the same intensity.

Cartoony sculpture was outside. My companion said, he is still quite amazed that cartoons are so important to the general public. They are not to him. A funny Oldenburg that is called the Kleenix in the Architects Pocket sat among these and he accepts that kind of cartoon.

Terry Talty was the Art Tourist in October of 2008 looking at art in Kansas City, Missouri.

The reflection of a Frank Stella wall piece in the shiny floor of the Kemper Museum at the KC Art Institute.

David Smith sculpture in the permanent collection of the Kemper Contemporary Art Museum at the Kansas City Art Institute.