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Kansas City Art Gallery News Kansas City Front Page is a weekly news publication spotlighting attractions, jobs, events, business and hotels in downtown Kansas City.  Art Adds a Brighter Green to Missouri's Bottom LineArtsKC Fund Inspiration Awards AnnouncedArts Council Awards $243,500 in Stimulus Funding Grants |
Exploring Egypt: 19th Century Expeditionary Photography at The Nelson-Atkins Museum KANSAS CITY, (kansascityfrontpage.com) - Visitors to Exploring Egypt: 19th Century Expeditionary Photography at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which runs from March 6 - July 18, will be able to view the rediscovery of Egypt as did the modern world in the mid-19th century. The exhibition will present recent acquisitions of rare early photographs taken during the photographic rediscovery of Egypt from 1845 to the 1860s. Although the publication of Napoleon's 1802 Description of Egypt exposed many Europeans to the wonders of ancient Egypt, it was the use of photography in the middle of that century that provided many more people views of a region that would become a tourist destination in future centuries. Visitors to Exploring Egypt will be guided on a visual tour of the Nile, highlighting popular sites including the pyramids of Giza, the palace at Karnak and the Island of Philae. Within the first few decades of photography's invention, a handful of daring Europeans and American set out to photograph Egypt. "These artist-adventurers braved difficult traveling conditions, endured terrific heat which boiled their photographic chemicals, dodged mosquitoes and crocodiles, all the while maintaining a complete ignorance of Egyptian customs," said Jane Aspinwall, Assistant Curator of Photography, who curated the exhibition. In spite of the obstacles that faced them, the daring photographers were able to photograph the ruins of ancient Egypt before waves of later visitors poured into the region, plundering artifacts and carving graffiti into the ruins. Among the recent acquisition of photographs in the exhibition are those by Felix Teynard, Francis Frith, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, J.B. Greene, Maxime du Camp, and Louis de Clerq. The photographs reflected each artist's viewpoint. Some were amateurs traveling on a gentleman's Grand Tour, photographing at leisure and for personal edification. Some had government commissions to explore and relay information back to scientific communities. Some were on personal artistic quests, move by the magnificence surrounding them. Others were unabashed professionals catering to the demands of Western audiences for tourist photographs for the armchair travelers back home. "Together, these photographers created a stunning interpretation of this remote, seemingly unreachable, exotic land," Aspinwall said. "Their views - documentary, impressionistic and personal - served both to inform a larger Western audience and to ignite its collective imagination." Linda Hall Library in Kansas City is loaning a volume of the Description of Egypt from its rare books collection for the Nelson-Atkins exhibition. That work served as a kind of guide book of sites for later travelers to visit and photograph. Aspinwall will give a talk regarding the exhibition in the gallery at 7 p.m., April 16 as part of "The Curator is IN!" series.   The Kansas City Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Kansas City area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 2007 - 2010 Moore Design Group. |
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