Heavens: Photographs of the Sky & Cosmos Opens at Nelson-Atkins
Kansas City, MO. June 9, 2011
Exhibition Explores Fascination with Sun, Clouds, Moon and Stars
Humankind has long been fascinated with the realms above us. For more than 150 years, photographers have looked to the heavens for inspiration and personal expression. With the invention of the telescope, photographers were afforded a new way of looking at the seemingly constant sun, moon and planets. Space exploration allowed even more dramatic views of distant worlds invisible to the naked eye. Heavens: Photographs of the Sky & Cosmos, June 15–November 13, features 39 photographs from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art collection that explore, among other out-of-this-world subjects, the strange beauty and inherent wonder of the craters of the moon, spots on the sun, and distant galaxies.
“What do you see when you look up? The sky and clouds, the sun and moon, and further, space,” said Jane L. Aspinwall, assistant curator of photography. “There is much to be learned and experienced through images of the heavens. Each photographer utilizes their own process, to convey a range of ideas about time and man’s place in the universe.”
The sky and clouds have long been identified with transcendence and the spiritual. The sun is the center of our existence, our essential source of light and life. Paradoxically, the sun’s illumination allows us to see the world, but its intensity makes it practically impossible for us to actually see the sun. Solar eclipses are presented in Heavens by photographers John Adams Whipple, E.J. Ward and Lewis P. Tabor, among others.
“Heavens provides fresh perspective on subjects that everyone knows, but which are rarely pondered,” said Aspinwall. “For example, Chris McCaw’s work makes the physical power of light literal: his photographic paper is actually burned by the intensity of the sun’s image as it is focused by the camera lens.”
Heavens unites the simple and the all-encompassing. At once timeless and forever new, our urge to look upward is a fundamental sign of our humanity, a symbol of our need both to locate ourselves and to imagine other realities. This simple impulse unites science and spirit, the things that can be seen and those that can only be imagined.
Special programs set in conjunction with Heavens: Photographs of the Sky and Cosmos
The Curator is IN!
Friday, June 17
7-8 p.m.
Gallery L11
Join curator Jane. L. Aspinwall for an informal overview of how photographers have interpreted and incorporated the sun, moon, stars, clouds and space into their work from 1865 to the present.
Artist’s Talk
Special Members-Only Presentation
Chris McGaw
Friday, July 8
6-7 p.m.
Atkins Auditorium
Chris McCaw explores the most basic nature of the photographic process: the power of light on a light-sensitive surface. In these hours-long exposures, the light focused by the camera’s lens creates not only a virtual image, but–where it is most intense–a scorched, physical burn.
Artist’s Talk
Blank Spots on the Map: The Visual World of State Secrets–the Photographs of Trevor Paglen
Thursday, Aug. 4
6-7 p.m.
Atkins Auditorium
Geographer and artist Trevor Paglen discusses the world of hidden budgets, state secrets, covert military bases and classified military satellites. Using images he has produced and collected, Paglen shows how the “black world’s” internal contradictions give rise to a peculiar visual aesthetic with strong implications for the contemporary moment.
In the Still of the Night: Art and Equinox Stargazing
Friday, September 23
6 – 6:30 p.m.
Atkins Auditorium
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Kansas City Sculpture Park, South steps
Join curator Jan Schall for a close look at the mystery and meanings of night, as revealed in works of art from the Museum collection. Then explore the night sky through telescopes focused on our moon, planets and stars. Members of the Kansas City Astronomical Society are our guides.
This exhibition is supported by the Hall Family Foundation and the Campbell-Calvin Fund and Elizabeth C. Bonner Trust for exhibitions.