Permanent Collection

4420 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64111

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Programming is generously supported by the Jack and Karen Holland Visiting Artist Program​.

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

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

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permanent-collection

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Kemper Museum’s informed and rigorous collecting and exhibition history illuminates the importance of visual language as a mode of interpreting our contemporary world.  

Gesture has been both a broad and grounding concept throughout the Kemper Museum Permanent Collection since the collection first established by an initial gift of more than 300 objects from the museum’s co-founders Mary “Bebe” Hunt and R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. (1927–2014) in 1994. This initial gift included exceptional works by such artists as Larry Bell, Dan Christensen, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, Virginia Jaramillo, Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella Monumental and sweeping or focused and intimate; dripped, patterned, poured, carved, or built; abstract and representational, direct and obscure, activated and still, gesture remains a powerful concept that allows viewers to engage with works of art from many generations and perspectives.

Since the collection was established, great strides have been made to reflect a more inclusive scope of American art and that of the world in its growth to nearly 1,500 objects. Representing artists from historically excluded backgrounds remains a priority as the museum makes acquisitions and continues to conduct research to address the gaps in the collection. 

With a history of collecting works from exhibitions it organized, the museum which has resulted in the addition of works by such artists as Firelei Báez (Dominican, born 1981), Betty Blayton (American, 1937–2016), Rashid Johnson (American, born 1977), Angel Otero (Puerto Rican, born 1981), and Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota, born 1976).

Visitors see a rotating selection of Permanent Collection works at the museum on view in the Atrium and in focused exhibitions. 

Even when permanent collection works are not on view, the museum engages audiences across the globe by loaning artist works to other institutional exhibitions and participating in global initiatives such as Google Arts and Culture to expose the collection to wider audiences for research and scholarship. Kemper Museum also updates its collection catalogue regularly to illustrate developments in the museum’s collecting history.

artist index

Artist Index

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Mark Adams

Ron Adams

June Ahrens

Gary Akers

Josef Albers

Terry Allen

Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A)

Alvin Eli Amason

Gregory Amenoff

Sherald, Amy

Barry Anderson

Peter Anton

Polly Apfelbaum

Ken Aptekar

Alexander Archipenko

Avigdor Arikha

Siah Armajani

L. C. Armstrong

Robert Arneson

Charles Arnoldi

Steven Assael

Ellen Auerbach

Milton Avery

Sally Michel Avery

Nicole Awai

Alice Baber

Francis Bacon

John Balistreri

Bill Barminski

Tina Barney

Jennifer Bartlett

David Bates

Romare Bearden

Rosemarie Beck

José Bedia

Larry Bell

Philomene Bennett

Thomas Hart Benton

Robin Bernat

Harry Bertoia

Janice Biala

Bianca Fields

Elmer Bischoff

Ed Blackburn

Julie Blackmon

Betty Blayton

Rita Blitt

Diana Blok

Sonja Blomdahl

Claude Bogratchew

Boi Boy

Christian Boltanski

Chakaia Booker

Fernando Botero

Louise Bourgeois

Claudio Bravo

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

David Brega

Doug Brega

James Brinsfield

James Brooks

Christopher Brown

Frederick James Brown

Frederick James Brown at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Richard Lotman Brown

Stephen Brown

Byron Browne

Jim Brustlein

John Buck

Dan Budnik

Charles Burchfield

Andy Burns

Bisa Butler

Deborah Butterfield

Firelei Báez

Paul Cadmus

Ingrid Calame

Alexander Calder

Harry Callahan

Jo Ann Callis

Morrie Camhi

Suzanne Caporael

Roberto Caracciolo

Annie Cardin

Squeak Carnwath

Patty Carroll

Brendan Cass

Nick Cave

Marek Cecula

John Chamberlain

Robert Chambers

Barbara Chase-Riboud

Judy Chicago

Dale Chihuly

William Christenberry

Dan Christensen

Christo

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Carmen Louis Cicero

John Clem Clarke

Indicates that the artist is currently on view at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

collection-policies

Collection Policies

Please read our Image Use Guidelines before attempting to capture or use any images from this website for personal use or otherwise. To learn more about donating artwork, please read our Gifts of Art Policy.

Kemper Museum extends the reach of its Permanent Collection by loaning artworks to other institutions to be presented in special exhibitions. In this way, the Permanent Collection engages more people and contributes to research in contemporary art. 

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