Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

I went to Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City today.

It was a trip of searching for inner soul, that's what I would call.
And half way strolling from one hall to another, I quickly realised that I should have come here much earlier, and I would definitely make another trip back there.

I have spent most of the time in the lobby and the plaza level. At the lobby was mainly showing those modern arts, some of which are pretty nice. At the plaza level, I was on the wing, where most European arts were exhibited. I spent a long time walking from one painting to another in the Plaza level, and was thrilled by the details and thoughts of the artists. Some of which nearly made me cried.

I wouldn't say the collection in Nelson-Atkins were the finest, or have a strong theme, but it is a very friendly collection for fresh entry level audiences, as well as having a few unique ones to cater for those who would appreciate them.

The European section stirred a strong emotion to me, because I have only recently starting to understand art, and the transformation of art over the centuries, by starting my violin.

Pardon my indifference to the art studies, but I somehow find it amusing, to see people depicting the artists vision, or trying to classify the artist's drawing. All you may know, it could because the artist was suffering from bad eye sight, and was trying to draw what he saw, hence impressionist.

I also felt rather disappointed at myself, that I should have exploited my stay in UK more, and explore more on the fine arts there. Because some of the museum that I visited during my stay there, housed some real good and famous arts. Also, I was so close to France, yet didn't cross the channel enough to visit it. I shouldn't have watched my spending so tightly, but then again, I guess the grapes take its time to turn into the wine, so I shouldn't feel too sour about it.

There was this thing called Grand Tour existed in the ancient Europe time (can't remember the time frame), where those rich English families would send their young chaps out of the house, mainly to Europe, to study, explore, learn the society and get some connections for their future path. And these young chaps would collect arts along their trips, and some of them were shown in the museum today.

Looking at some of the bizzare things they have collected, I would imagine myself as the craftman trying to sell them stuffs like that. I also thought, their existance would have been some money source for the young artists too. Judging the age these young English chaps went overseas, I wouldn't be surprised by their taste of arts, it is kinda like an old sister looking at her teenage brother's rock album collections.

In a way, I guess I could understand the meaning and the impact of the Grand Tour. Because it is also what I have been going through too, except the fact that I didn't purchase those huge art pieces for my collections. I can't help to wonder, where would I stand, given what I have today, in the past, among these Grand Tour young English chaps?

Would I be the one that scuffing under the Englishmen arrogance? Or would I be the one that draw satirical painting of them, and get them to purchase it?

After finishing half of Plaza level, I decided that I had had enough of European influences, and was very curious about the 2nd level exhibition. On the map, it shows Chinese, Japanese, and other Asians art exhibitions.

I went straight to the Japanese section in 2nd level, was rather disappointed by the little collection. But was surprised to find a rather melancholy artist, who would draw huge painting and write something when his friend sent him rice, while he was meditating in the temple in the hill. The Japanese writing wasn't like today, most of them are still Kanji, so you could more or less know what is written there.

The Chinese ones are rather over rated, though some of the things made me feel as if I had fell into the time machine. Most of the drawings and sculptures, you could see that it is from private collections. The descriptions on the drawings and caligraphies were pretty brief -- unless you know Chinese. Being able to read what is written on the scrolls, doubled the feelings you had from just appreciating it as a display item. I guess one would feel the same, when one get to read a fraction of private letter, hand written by someone famous, say Lincoln. The intense feeling from reading off the real writing, carries beyond the thick display glass, it feels almost like the person is alive again. I mentioned this long time ago, when me and my friend went down to London to see the China Three Emperors' Exhibition.

The Chinese sculpture were mainly taken from the roof of some caves, some building door fragment etc. It made you wonder, what kind of history has these sculptures been through? After standing there for centuries, overseeing the rise and fall of various clans, and one day, a bunch of crazy greedy knowledgable people come by, chipped it out from its home, sell it and ship it across the oceans and put it in an aircond. room, with temperature monitoring systems sitting next to it.

It is also sad, to think that one would be able to see more authentic Chinese arts overseas, than in China. Though the guilt still lies on those who robbed these fine collections from China in the history, but I sometimes can't help but think the other way. If it weren't because of these so-called-robbers, Chinese arts won't survive until today. And I am talking about those authentic ones -- I can't appal more towards the piracy and forgery of the ancient Chinese arts these days.

The South Asian collections were mainly the Indian gods, which I had already seen a lot of them in India. Again, the feeling is the same as what I had towards the Chinese ones.

When I was leaving, there was a wedding in the museum. I have heard it in UK before, people would choose to have wedding banquet in the museum or library, because the setting in these places are generally grand and spacious. And it is also a side income for the organisation too. I wonder if my wedding in the future could be taken place in such grand venues?

My next trip there, would be to complete the tour by visiting the American arts, the Egyptians' and the remaining European ones.