Nelson-Atkins Organizes Timothy O’Sullivan Photography Exhibition Debuting at Art Institute of Chicago

Kansas City, MO. Oct.11, 2011

 Exhibition Travels to Kansas City in April 2012

The King Survey of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains, from 1867 to 1872, was the model for the other “great surveys” of the nineteenth-century American West. Rare and iconic works by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, the King Survey’s official photographer, will be featured in an exhibition opening at the Art Institute of Chicago on Oct. 22. Keith F. Davis and Jane L. Aspinwall, respectively senior and assistant curators of photography at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, organized the exhibition: Timothy O’Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs . Davis will give a lecture in Chicago when the exhibition opens.

“O’Sullivan’s King Survey work is of central importance both to his career and to the history of photography,” said Davis. “His images of mining operations, barren landscapes and unusual geological formations represent a powerful, raw vision of this little-known territory.”

There are 60 photographs in the exhibition. Nine were borrowed from the American Geographical Society in Milwaukee, WI; all the rest are from the holdings of the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Davis and Aspinwall co-authored a major book accompanying the exhibition.

“O’Sullivan is one of the giants of American photography. After all these years, his images remain inspiring, surprising, and challenging.” said Davis. “They are a perfect, if enigmatic, union of documentary and artistic intentions, fact and interpretation.”

Timothy H. O’Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs gives visitors a new appreciation of the visual history of the 19th century American west, while presenting some of the museum’s rarest treasures for public view.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 

The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America’s finest art museums. The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access and insight into its renowned collection of more than 33,500 art objects and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings, photography, modern sculpture, and new American Indian and Egyptian galleries. Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region. The institution-wide transformation of the Nelson-Atkins has included the 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building expansion and renovation of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building.

The Nelson-Atkins is located at 45th and Oak Streets, Kansas City, MO. Hours are Wednesday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Thursday/Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, Noon–5 p.m. Admission to the Museum is free to everyone. For Museum information, phone 816.751.1ART (1278) or visit nelson-atkins.org/.