First Retrospective of Photographer Terry Evans Opens at Nelson-Atkins
Kansas City, MO. Sept 5, 2012
Sweeping Views of Midwest Prairie and People
One of the nation’s finest landscape photographers, Terry Evans, is widely recognized for her views of the Midwest prairie, its people, and its artifacts. Her first retrospective, Heartland: The Photographs of Terry Evans, opens at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Oct. 20 and runs through Jan. 20, 2013.
“Terry Evans is best known for her aerial views of the American Midwest,” said April Watson, associate curator of photography. “From that vantage point she found a fresh, compelling way to look at this uniquely complex, though often overlooked, landscape.”
In recent years, Evans has made sustained explorations of other subjects from a variety of visual perspectives: natural history museum specimens, the city of Chicago, and the steel industry.
“However varied it may seem,” said Keith F. Davis, senior photography curator, “Her life’s work is united by her interest in the intricate relationship between people and the land–the strength and fragility of both, and the effects of time and entropy.”
Because of Evans’s Kansas City background, there is an historic logic to the exhibition.
“Terry Evans grew up in Kansas City, attending classes at the Nelson-Atkins as a child,” said Jane L. Aspinwall, associate curator. “We are immensely pleased that this celebration of her artistic career can take place at the very museum that nurtured her early love for art.”
Born in 1944 and raised in Kansas City, Evans lived for years in Salina, Kansas, before moving to Chicago in the early 1990s. Her love and concern for the prairie–her native landscape, the nation’s heartland–has inspired and informed her entire artistic career. In highlighting the beauty and complexity of a subtle and often overlooked landscape, Evans’s photographs prod us to think more deeply about things too often taken for granted.
Heartland: The Photographs of Terry Evans depicts the photographer’s entire career through 100 prints of varying process and size. Evans’s work is characterized by an abiding sense of curiosity and wonder, a perceptual clarity and directness, and a warm, empathetic engagement with her subjects. Evans has enjoyed a national reputation for more than 30 years; however, this is the first exhibition to survey the range of her achievement, to bring the full scope of her career into focus.
There are several programs offered in conjunction with this exhibition.
Artist Presentation: Terry Evans
Saturday, November 10
1 p.m. Book signing to follow.
Atkins Auditorium
Free; ticketed
Our Land/Our Lives
Saturdays, November 10–December 1
2-4 p.m.
Exhibition galleries L13-14
Purchase an exhibition ticket for any one Our Land/Our Lives event and receive free exhibition admission to attend a second event.
Experience the Heartland of America through the lens of Terry Evans, and celebrate wondrous landscapes, species and traditions through this innovative series. Offered on four consecutive Saturdays within the galleries of Heartland: The Photographs of Terry Evans, each event presents an array of perspectives about our shared natural and cultural environments to compliment Evans’ stunning photographs.
November 10
Our Regions
Five regional partners—The Flint Hills Discovery Center, the Kansas Land Trust, Kansas City Wildlands, the Konza Prairie Biological Station, and the Mid-America Regional Council—help visitors explore local environments, from Konza prairie to extant wildlands within Kansas City’s borders. Learn more about the landscapes that inspire Terry Evans and meet the artist herself!
November 17
Our Natural Neighbors
Our friends from the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, the Missouri Prairie Foundation, and KU’s McGregor Herbarium and Natural History Museum share Terry Evans’ appreciation of natural specimens. Bring the whole family for this hands-on adventure with local flora and fauna, and experience Evans’ subjects up close.
November 24
Our Remarkable Women
Discover the many remarkable women who shaped the Kansas and Missouri prairies with Kansas City-based writer Gina Kauffman. Kauffman will read suspenseful passages from her recent book, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Kansas Women, as well as an essay based on her experience working on Green Dirt Farm in Weston, Missouri.
December 1
Our Soundtrack
The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance presents short in-gallery performances of pieces by composers whose styles evoke affinities with the region and Evans’ photographs.
This program has been organized by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and is supported by Molly McGee, Swiss Re, the Hall Family Foundation, the Mellon-Frick-Rothschild Publication Fund, and the Campbell-Calvin Fund and Elizabeth C. Bonner Charitable Trust for exhibitions.
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/.