Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

The Big Reveal

September 23 to April 15, 2012

Petah Coyne, Untitled #1336 (Scalapino Nu Shu), 2009–10; apple tree, taxidermy Black Melinistic Pheasants, taxidermy Blue India Peacocks, taxidermy Black-Shouldered Peacocks, taxidermy Spaulding Peacocks, black sand from pig iron casting, Acrylex 234, black paint, cement, chicken wire fencing, wood, gravel, sisal, staging rope, cotton rope, insulated foam sealant, pipe, epoxy, threaded rod, wire, screws, jaw-to-jaw swivels, 158 x 262 x 288 inches; Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. T. Kemper Charitable Trust, UMB Bank, n.a., Trustee; Image © Petah Coyne, courtesy of Galerie Lelong, New York, photo: Elizabeth Bernstein

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art celebrates new acquisitions to the Museum’s permanent collection in the exhibition The Big Reveal. It features works by 27 artists from around the world and is on view September 23, 2011–April 15, 2012, at the Kemper Museum. Since opening in 1994, the Museum’s permanent collection has more than tripled, a tremendous feat for any institution. Admission is free; however donations are welcome.

The exhibition features paintings, photographs, drawings, and more by more than two-dozen artists. The exhibition features more than thirty new acquisitions to the Museum’s permanent collection. Most have never been on view before at the Kemper Museum. The exhibitions works are by: Jose Alvarez, Barry Anderson, Francis Bacon, David Bates, Romare Bearden, Ed Blackburn, Jacob Collins, Petah Coyne, Robert Farber, Barbara Grad, Red Grooms, Susan Hefuna, Ana Maria Hernando, Liu Hong, Keith Jacobshagen, Roberto Juarez, Susanne Kühn, Robert Kushner, Magnolia Laurie, Willem de Looper, Richard Mosse, Michael Schultz, Hans Silvester, Esther Solondz, Yoshihiko Ueda, William Wegman, and Betty Woodman.

The dramatic focal point of the exhibition will be the massive acquisition by American artist Petah Coyne. The Kemper Museum acquired Untitled #1336 (Scalapino Nu Shu), 2009–10, a more-than-500-square-foot sculpture installation centered around a full-size, preserved apple tree with mounted peacocks and pheasants. For this dramatic work, she drew inspiration from the Chinese women’s secret language, called nu shu, and the writings of author Flannery O’Conner. Perhaps best known for her dramatic “chandelier” sculptures in black and white waxes, the artist created the work in tribute to her friend, the late American poet Leslie Scalapino (1944–2010), with whom she had a long letter-writing relationship. This is the second work by Coyne to join the Museum’s permanent collection. The Kemper Museum presented the exhibition Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin in 2005.