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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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Philip Pearlstein

In Philip Pearlstein’s highly realistic painting, two larger-than-life nude female models recline diagonally across a bold, geometrically patterned rug in an interior space. The foreground figure lies face down with her bent right arm cropped by the canvas corner, while the other rests on her side, head turned away. A mirror in the back reflects fragments of their bodies and the rug, creating shifting planes of space within the composition. Arranged and rendered with unsentimental precision, the scene functions as if it were a still life, embodying Pearlstein’s objective attitude. The artist described his approach as “sharp, clear, unambiguous.” In this painting, Pearlstein’s “hard realism” records what he directly observed: bodies and objects accurately rendered without emotion or narrative implications.

MA Student in Museum Studies, University of Kansas

Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection

Two Models on Kilim Rug with Mirror

Two Models on Kilim Rug with Mirror, 1983Philip Pearlstein