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Kemper Museum is a free art museum in Kansas City, Missouri that presents global contemporary art.

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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to be good caretakers of the land we occupy. 

Click here to learn more about our land acknowledgment process.

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Rackstraw Downes

A wide, realistically rendered panoramic view of a sunlit Texan landscape, Mixed Use Field on Texas Coast immerses the viewer in an open field shaped by natural flora, agriculture, and industry. The horizon line curves gently, with land and sky occupying relatively balanced proportions. Scattered plants, grazing cows, oil wells, and wooden utility poles remain in clear focus; their shifting scale and alignment suggest recession, spatial depth, and multiple vanishing points, producing a strong sense of place. As the title suggests, this is a shared landscape in which two of Texas’s largest industries—cattle raising and oil—are placed side by side. Although the scene presents land and industry as cohabitants, the inclusion of cattle bones in the left foreground signals the presence of death. Rather than offering a definitive conclusion, Downes’s painting invites reflection on the complex relationships within this ecosystem. 

PhD Student in Art History, University of Kansas 

Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection

Mixed Use Field on Texas Coast

Mixed Use Field on Texas Coast, 1987Rackstraw Downes