Wichita Art Museum Is Focusing On The Civil War
May 2005
The Wichita Art Museum is focusing on the Civil War and its impact on the country through special programming and four concurrent exhibitions showing photography, cartoons, sculpture and paintings.
Museum Director Charles K. Steiner says, "The Civil War was a thematic current for many of us growing up in the United States. Either our parents dragged us to battlefields on summer vacations or we studied it in school or we were mesmerized by the gruesome statistics that were to be matched only by the War in Vietnam. Thus, I hope that these handsome exhibitions, and the two intriguing ones to follow, will strike a familiar and sentimental chord for many of us."
Photographs from the exhibition “Killing Ground” will remain up through May 15. Photographer John Huddleston takes visitors on a photographic journey comparing images of sites that were once violent battlefields with the same locations as they appear today.
Huddleston includes images of soldiers, prisoners of war, civilians and slaves that exemplify life during the mid- 1860s. In addition to the 42 photographic diptychs, the exhibition also includes several objects that were found on a battlefield, including bags of dirt and a jump rope.
“Prints of the Civil War by Thomas Nast from the Collection of the Wichita Art Museum” features works by the Harper’s Weekly political cartoonist. He depicted opinions and information in the North. A first exhibit ended April 24, and a second installation will be displayed from May 1 through July 10.
Nast portrayed the war as a tragedy while striving to express the sense of purpose for the thousands of lives sacrificed. President Abraham Lincoln said Nast’s “cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and patriotism, and have always seemed to come just when those article were getting scarce."
On view through May 15, is “The American Civil War: A Nation Divided,” which features American artists such as Winslow Homer and works published by Currier and Ives. This large collection of period prints shows how contemporaries saw, or wished to see, the war.
The national touring exhibition “Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor of the Gilded Age” will be on view through June 12. Known as the "American Michelangelo," Saint-Gaudens acquired much of his national reputation through his monuments dedicated to the Civil War and its heroes. One of his finest works is his memorial to Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment on Boston Common.
Versions of all Saint-Gaudens' major projects are represented in the exhibit, including Abraham Lincoln and the Sherman Monument. The exhibition includes full-sized works of bronze, marble and plaster, portrait reliefs, decorative objects and coins.
The Saint-Gaudens exhibit is being presented at the Wichita Art Museum in conjunction with a larger local community collaboration — “The Gilded Age and the Rise of American Public Sculpture”. Five cultural institutions are offering programming relating to public sculpture during April through June.
While the galleries are filled with exhibitions focusing on the Civil War, the Museum Store is featuring a wide number of related products, including exhibition catalogs, books and videos.
The Wichita Art Museum is open Sunday 12-5 and Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for ages 5-17, with free admission Saturdays and for scheduled school groups. For information call (316) 268-4921 or visit www.wichitaartmuseum.org
