Drawing on work from the James and Virginia Moffett Collection, Power to the People: Mexican Prints from the Great War to the Cold War explores the political and social conditions of early-20th-century Mexico and the dynamic, groundbreaking art that emerged from the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920).

This period of war and dramatic social upheaval witnessed a flowering of artistic production, particularly in printmaking and graphic arts. Mexico’s long printmaking tradition dates to the late 1500s.

Artists such as José Guadalupe Posada, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—icons of Mexican modernism—drew on those traditions and everyday imagery to create new messages of social justice meant to appeal directly to the working classes in the Mexican provinces.

Power to the People is guest-curated by Cori Sherman North and Bill North.

WAM gives special thanks to Teresa Molina, assistant professor of Spanish at Friends University, for advising and for translating Power to the People exhibition signage and labels for each work of art for Spanish-speaking visitors.
WAM agradece especialmente a Teresa Molina, profesora de español en la Universidad de Friends, por el asesoramiento y la traducción de la señalización de la exposición Power to the People y de las etiquetas de cada obra de arte para los visitantes de habla hispana.

THANK YOU to all of the exhibition sponsors who are making this exhibition possible.

2022 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Family Foundation. All museum exhibitions receive generous support from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita.

Sponsors

City of Wichita
Friends of the Wichita Art Museum

Fall brings Paper Dreams: Alfred Maurer and American Masterpieces to the Wichita Art Museum with two beautifully paired exhibitions. Alfred Maurer: American Modern Works on Paper from the Weisman Art Museum Collection and Essence of Line: American Modern Works on Paper from the Wichita Art Museum Collection combine the riches of two nationally prominent American art collections—Minneapolis and Wichita.

Beginning in the early 20th century, American artists turned away from centuries-old subjects and styles, yearning to reflect their own time and unique experiences in a rapidly changing world. Renegades who championed self-expression, they ignored the rules and crafted their own freshly original art. Those modern masters expressed themselves with greatest immediacy in works on paper, including drawings, pastels, watercolors, and prints.

One gallery will feature work by Alfred Maurer (1868–1932), all from the collection of the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota. From the artist’s early success with academic classicism to daring Matisse-inspired fauvism to languid modernist muses, the exhibition presents the artistic development of one of America’s leading avant-garde artists in the early 20th century.

In the neighboring gallery, American modernist gems from the Wichita Art Museum will be proudly displayed. This world-class grouping includes incredible moderns such as Charles Burchfield, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Edward Hopper, John Marin, Maurice Prendergast, Charles Sheeler, Everett Shinn, and many more.

The combination of exhibitions will be a rare treat for Wichita and Kansas audiences—works on paper are particularly sensitive to light damage and restrictions limit the time these artworks can be displayed.

About This Exhibition
Flat, pure color. Geometric forms. Hard edges and right angles. Kaleidoscope features a range of works from the Wichita Art Museum’s collection that showcase 20th-century art’s experimentation with line, color, and optical effects.

At mid-century, abstraction—which rejected the realistic depiction of people, places, and things in art—reigned supreme. Line and color, which had previously been used to realistically depict the world, took center stage as subjects in their own right. Some artists avoided any suggestion of depth or recession in space, preferring flat planes of a single color to reinforce the flatness of the painted surface. Other artists did the opposite. They deliberately manipulated color and line to create the illusion of movement and depth, sometimes subtle and sometimes dizzying.

For all the artists in the exhibition, however, it is perception—how the eye experiences color and line—that fascinates. Visit the exhibition and step into a kaleidoscope.

Our Generous Sponsors

THANK YOU to all of the exhibition sponsors who are making this exhibition possible.

2022 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Family Foundation. All museum exhibitions receive generous support from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita.

Sponsors

City of Wichita
Friends of the Wichita Art Museum