A Midwest Visit with Kahlo, Rivera, Judd & Benton

We spent a wonderful Fourth of July weekend in Kansas City!  Steven's parents hosted a lovely post-wedding celebration with friends and family at their home.  My mother-in-law Joy set out vases filled with big sunflowers & decorated with a few of the papel picado flags I made for our wedding reception.  

On my first visit to KC with Steven, when we first began dating, he took me to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  It is in my top three favorite museums in the US, along with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Warhol in Pittsburgh.  We spent an afternoon in the Modern Mexico special exhibition.  All of the artwork in the show is part of the Gelman collection, which has an interesting history & was even hidden for a number of years due to questions of ownership.  There were a handful of self-portraits and still-life paintings by Frida, displayed alongside works by her husband Diego.  There was also an unfinished charcoal sketch of Frida's sister Christine by Rivera;  knowing his history with her sister made the piece hard to look at.  

The sculpture to the left is Large Stack by Donald Judd, 1968.  It is absolutely massive and I love it!  Sunlight pours in from above and the amber colored plexi casts a subtle tint on the walls.  

  On the final day of our visit, we drove past the home & studio of Thomas Hart Benton.  The Bower family has a link to this modern   

                                                  American artist, as Steven's Grandma was his secretary!