Exhibition Information
Future Exhibitions
Sunrise over Kansas: John Steuart Curry
June 29, 2021 – February 28, 2022
Dramatic weather plays a significant role in Regionalist John Steuart Curry’s art, especially as a symbol of menace. Less recognized is the importance of another event in nature—the sunrise—in Curry’s oeuvre. The celestial motif is explored in this exhibition of the artist’s paintings, prints and drawings. The exhibition pays tribute to the museum’s 1935 painting, Sunrise over Kansas, which suffered discoloration of its sun as a result of the artist’s experiments with materials and now has been conserved.
Image: John Steuart Curry (1897 – 1946), Sunrise (Sunrise over Kansas), 1935, mixed-media on canvas, Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase, 1996.18
Paleolithic Points from
The Forms: Four Worlds | David Lebrun
August 9, 2021 – July 16, 2022
Organized by the museum in collaboration with K-State’s Information Technology Services, this experimental multimedia installation is guaranteed to surprise and delight! It features the mysterious beauty of an ancient artifact through specially composed music and unique video animation. See the past differently!
Image: The Forms: Four Worlds. Simulation. © 2019 Night Fire Films
Gordon Parks: “Homeward to the Prairie I Come”
September 7, 2021 – May 28, 2022
This exhibition features photographs donated by Parks to Kansas State University (K-State) in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1973. It was the first time that the artist personally curated a set of photographs to donate to a public institution, a kind of self-portrait directed towards the home crowd. The exhibition title includes the first line of a poem written by Parks in 1984, commissioned by and published in the Manhattan Mercury. K-State’s New Prairie Press will publish an accompanying open-access digital catalogue with new research on Parks and Kansas.
Image: Uncle James Parks, 1950, printed in 2017, gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 in., gift of Gordon Parks and the Gordon Parks Foundation, 2017.448
Doug Barrett: Find Your Voice
September 7, 2021 – May 28, 2022
Barrett is a photographer and videographer based in Manhattan, Kansas. His work demonstrates how Gordon Parks continues to inspire contemporary artists. Barrett’s projects include interviewing, photographing, and telling the stories of homeless veterans, creating a collective portrait of the Yuma Street community of Manhattan, Kansas, and documenting the Black Lives Matter movement in Kansas.
Image: Will the hate end? from the series George Floyd Protest, 2020, digital print, 32 x 22 in., 2020.20
Salt Air
March 15 - October 1, 2022
Visit the beach from the Beach! This exhibition, planned in conjunction with the American Library Association’s 2022 summer reading theme “Oceans of Possibility,” features waves, shorelines, sand dunes and sea creatures in the museum’s collection. This exhibition sets the theme for the museum’s weekly summer art programs, tours, and gallery activities.
Image: Jeff Aeiling (1958, Iowa City, Iowa), title unknown, 2007, oil on panel, Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase, 2008.15
Prairie Views
April 5 – December 15, 2022
This exhibition gives voice to the prairie and provides opportunities for all ages to discover its form and beauty. The exhibition complements the nearby outdoor Meadow as well as art displayed in other galleries, including Jim Richardson’s photographs of prairie root systems. Prairie Views includes photographs of prairie fires by Larry Schwarm and a collage-print related to the Ogallala aquifer by Lynn Benson, among other images.
Image: Robert Newton Sudlow, Autumn Storm, Wabaunsee County, 2002, oil on canvas, Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase, 2004.81
