View allAll Photos Tagged PermanentCollection,
Lacquered Geta, Japan
Wood, velvet; 20th c.
Gift of Annie B. Sweet
Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library Permanent Collection, S-12
DETAIL
Karl Nelson
Northfield MN
Cloud (2005)
Hard ground etching on paper
Friends of the Library Purchase Award
Printed Image I
2006.31
Cloud made me smile. I love the way this cloud carries inside it a layering of what appears to be bricks yet it floats on without a care in the world.
–Trish Nixon
I picked this for the contradiction. Clouds are light and bricks are heavy, which asks us to consider positive vs. negative space: is it a brick cloud, or a wall where paint has chipped off in a cloud shape to reveal the bricks underneath? If it is in fact a brick cloud, I find myself thinking of all the things to which I can compare this single image: deception, cynicism, disappointment—humor.
–Heather Kearns
Yitzhak Greenfield
Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem of Prayer (1990s)
Collage
2006.2
I picked this because I like metaphor and language. Greenfield uses covers from “decommissioned” holy books to create these “Jerusalem collages”—land and cityscapes built from scripture—literally. Embedded in the medium itself, the holy language of Hebrew is now inseparable from this city’s foundation. It is intrinsic to the structure. The language of a political minority is often at risk of extinction. Hebrew’s survival, despite centuries of being the language of the enslaved and exiled, reasserts itself as the dominant voice in the walls of Greenfield’s Jerusalem.
–Heather Kearns
I got to meet Yitzhak and show his work in Kansas City—a true gentleman. He uses the covers taken from holy books that are being rebound. He cuts and tears the book boards to create architectural forms out of the letters, colors and words. It makes me think of creation being made by God’s word. Binders never destroy the holy books. They may re-bind them many times.
–Sherry Best
Elizabeth Linley (1754-1792) was one of the great "beauties" of 18th century England. She had a noted career on the stage, and also married the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Barbara Waterman-Peters
Topeka KS
MWS 282: The Root of All (1996)
Pastel and oil pastel on paper
Gift of the artist and Larry Peters in memory of Kendall Durst
2007.21
This piece is intense. It seems to evoke what happens in unhealthy relationships when people feel frightened and trapped. It is both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. The symbolism speaks of the “curse of Eve”—of woman as the source of sin, and the feeling that there is no escape from that curse.
Kendall Durst was a former library employee, and a collector of art and antiques.
–Sherry Best
There’s a frightening and mysterious quality in The Root of All which makes the diptych such a strong work. This work leaves me on edge. What’s going to happen next?
–Trish Nixon
20/150: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Paper, April 16, 1887; “Kansas – Views in the City of Topeka, Capital of the State”
DETAIL
Yitzhak Greenfield
Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem of Prayer (1990s)
Collage
2006.2
I picked this because I like metaphor and language. Greenfield uses covers from “decommissioned” holy books to create these “Jerusalem collages”—land and cityscapes built from scripture—literally. Embedded in the medium itself, the holy language of Hebrew is now inseparable from this city’s foundation. It is intrinsic to the structure. The language of a political minority is often at risk of extinction. Hebrew’s survival, despite centuries of being the language of the enslaved and exiled, reasserts itself as the dominant voice in the walls of Greenfield’s Jerusalem.
–Heather Kearns
I got to meet Yitzhak and show his work in Kansas City—a true gentleman. He uses the covers taken from holy books that are being rebound. He cuts and tears the book boards to create architectural forms out of the letters, colors and words. It makes me think of creation being made by God’s word. Binders never destroy the holy books. They may re-bind them many times.
–Sherry Best
77/150: Dr. Karl Menninger’s Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Jimmy Carter, January 16, 1981. Citation: “Karl Menninger has taught us much about ourselves and our behavior. An acute observer and social critic, he has put into action what he has put onto paper. As an author and doctor, his works range from popular, written accounts of psychiatry to studies done in his own hospital, from creating homes for parentless children to reforming the penal system. With the wisdom of his years, he truly does represent the ideas of another generation – one of the future, rather than of the past.”
DETAIL:
Man’s shirt / How you no like me banana yes a like am too mach. Liberia, Loma. Cotton, embroidery. c. 1960s. Gift of Diana Hawks.
Smithsonian Institution NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY at 8th and F Street, NW, Washington DC on Sunday afternoon, 9 February 2014 by Elvert Barnes Photography
THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Permanent Exhibition
Paul Peck Gallery
Visit NPG / THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE website at www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/struggle/index.html
Elvert Barnes FEBRUARY 2014 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Project
TOP TO BOTTOM:
L. Huden (Chico, CA)
Untitled (1982)
Glass
1982.22
Vernon Brejcha | Lawrence, KS
"Sumac Dipper" (c. 1983)
Glass
Gift of Larry Peters and Barbara Waterman-Peters
2007.36.1
Smithsonian Institution NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY at 8th and F Street, NW, Washington DC on Sunday afternoon, 9 February 2014 by Elvert Barnes Photography
THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Permanent Exhibition
Paul Peck Gallery
Visit NPG / THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE website at www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/struggle/index.html
Elvert Barnes FEBRUARY 2014 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Project
Richard Stauffer | Emporia, KS
Vessel (No date; possibly 1980s)
Gift of Ted and Colleen Boelens
2010.45
Artist unknown
Tarascan Indians of Mexico
Ocumichu style
Helicopter Sculpture #16 (1990s)
Ceramic
Gift of George Paris
2005.44
I selected “The Devil made me do it” because of the bright colors and the Devil as trickster. The artist of this brightly painted clay object makes me laugh at myself because the trickster is laughing at me.
–Laura Dalrymple, Gallery volunteer
I am reminded of clay animation when looking at this piece. The playful style invites you to hop on and take a ride to some mystical land.
–Trish Nixon
83/150: Dr. Cotter Hirschberg, How to Talk about… book, How the Body Works. Cotter Hirschberg was a child psychiatrist at the Menninger Clinic, and wrote a series of these books about talking with children. They included anger, fear, going to doctors, and body functions.
Smithsonian Institution NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY at 8th and F Street, NW, Washington DC on Sunday afternoon, 9 February 2014 by Elvert Barnes Photography
THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Permanent Exhibition
Paul Peck Gallery
Visit NPG / THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE website at www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/struggle/index.html
Elvert Barnes FEBRUARY 2014 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Project
DETAIL
66/150: Big ball of twine, Gift of the Menninger Foundation, from Topeka State Hospital. One of the patients made twine as his therapy, and he wanted to make the biggest ball of twine in the world.
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Richard Stauffer | Emporia, KS
"Red Stems" (c. 2003-2004)
Glass
2005.30
Stephen Dee Edwards | North Carolina
Untitled (1985)
Glass
1986.1