As part of the Kemper Museum’s partnership with DST Systems, Inc., this exhibition focuses on the work of American sculptor Marc Swanson. The exhibition’s works provide context for a newly commissioned sculpture by Swanson that pays homage to the American buffalo or bison, the majestic beast of the American West. Reminiscent of a skeleton one might find at a natural history museum, the new acquisition—the third in the DST Systems, Inc., and Kemper Museum partnership—will be installed later this fall at the northeast corner of Ninth and Broadway in downtown Kansas City.

This series of exhibitions, Acquisitions in Context, provides a focused look at new works in the Museum’s permanent collection.

Above: Marc Swanson, Untitled (Looking Back Buck), 2004; crystals, polyurethane foam, adhesive, 38 x 18 x 18 inches; Private collection, New York, New York

Above: Rego, Recreation, 1996, pastel on paper, 66 x 51 inches, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection; Gift of the Enid and CrosbPaulay Kemper Foundation 1997.4

The natural world historically has been, and continues to be, an inspiration for artists. Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, these works are evocations of nature that stop short of total abstraction and juxtapose “hot” with “cold” images. New acquisitions by Suzanne Caporael and Alan Gussow are among those works featured.

Above: Suzanne Caporael, Jade Bay, North Sea, Germany, 2003; chine colle and lithography with hand painting on kozo paper, 19 x 13 inches, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, 2010.2

In the exhibition's works, artists use images of architecture not only as a representation of what we see but also as an icon of what the form symbolizes. The exhibition features a variety of works by early modernists Charles Burchfield and Hans Hofmann, as well as those by today's artists Lisa Sanditz and Elizabeth Huey.

Above: Elizabeth Huey, The Visions of Charles Bonnet, 2007; acrylic and oil on wood panel, 48 x 96 inches, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection; Gift of the R.C, Kemper Charitable Trust, 2008.16