ART IN KANSAS SCHOOLS
This exhibition is the first survey of art collecting by K-12 schools in Kansas. The story is unique in that it is driven by specific artists, community members, and civic organizations. But the Kansas example reveals in other ways the influence of nationwide social reforms, education trends, and government initiatives.
The title—inspired by the Kansas state motto, Ad astra per aspera, or “To the stars through difficulty”—alludes to the challenge of keeping the arts in the forefront of education. A goal of the exhibition is to help Kansas school districts learn more about how to care for their art, use it in teaching, and employ it to engage the community.
The largest collection owned by Kansas public schools began in 1911 when the superintendent in McPherson organized a fundraising exhibition to acquire artwork for a new high school. This ticketed event became an annual one, allowing the McPherson schools to establish a significant collection of works by American and international artists. Before 1950 schools in dozens of Kansas communities joined McPherson in acquiring art from traveling exhibitions, graduating class memorials, New Deal art projects, and more.
ARTIST
Birger Sandzén
Born 1871, Blidsberg, Sweden
Died 1954, Lindsborg, Kansas
OBJECT
Rocks and Cedars, 1920
Oil on board
67.25 x 87.5 x 2.25 in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418
ARTIST
Albert Bloch
Born 1882, St. Louis, Missouri
Died 1961, Lawrence, Kansas
OBJECT
Three at Table, 1925
Oil on canvas
36 x 40 in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418
A trio of men stare arrestingly at subjects around them rather than engaging one another in this apparent café scene. The McPherson schools acquired Bloch’s painting with proceeds from its 1930 exhibition. Also that year, the graduating class donated five watercolors to the collection.
Bloch first studied art in St. Louis. He went abroad in 1909, studying in Germany and then in Paris. He participated in the first Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) exhibition in 1911 in Munich. He was the only American artist invited to join the influential expressionistic group whose members included Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. The group, which was known for its color explorations, dissolved in 1914 with the advent of the First World War. After his return to the United States, Bloch headed the art department at the University of Kansas from 1923 to 1947.
ARTIST
Charles E. Hallberg
Born 1855, Gothenburg, Sweden
Died 1940, Chicago, Illinois
OBJECT
Lake Michigan, 1909
Oil on canvas
22 x 36 ¾ in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418
A soft green haze, cresting waves, and an opening sky suggest the passing of a storm in this view of Lake Michigan. The oil was acquired with proceeds from the first McPherson schools exhibition in 1911, along with a painting by Lindsborg’s Birger Sandzén, a close friend who often invited Hallberg to send his art to Kansas exhibitions.
At seventeen, Hallberg worked on a British brig to support his family. For a decade, he sailed European seas, usually with his painting supplies on board. In 1883 he moved to the United States to sail the Great Lakes. He continued to paint scenes of the changeable waters of Lake Michigan after settling in Chicago and taking janitorial jobs, and soon caught the attention of the director of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). Five of Hallberg’s paintings were shown at the AIC in 1902, and a one-man show there in 1906 included forty-one works.
In 1905 Hallberg was one of the key organizers of the Chicago-based Swedish American Art Association, which began a program of annual exhibitions modeled on Sandzén’s annual Midwest Art Exhibition.
ARTIST
Harold C. Dunbar
Born 1882, Brockton, Massachusetts
Died 1953, Chatham, Massachusetts
OBJECT
The Morning Letter, ca. 1912
Oil on canvas
25 ¼ x 31 3/8 in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418
ARTIST
Albert Krehbiel
Born 1873, Denmark, Iowa
Died 1945, Evanston, Illinois
OBJECT
The Stream in Winter, ca. 1918
Oil on canvas
22 x 30 5/8 in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418
Krehbiel’s depiction of a tree-lined stream conveys the depths of winter, when leafless trees permit a better view of the rising and falling sun. The artist grew up in Newton as the son of a Mennonite carriage maker who co-founded Bethel College.
Krehbiel studied in Europe and at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught for thirty-nine years. This painting was exhibited at the Art Institute in 1918, the year it was purchased with proceeds from McPherson’s annual art exhibition.
ARTIST
Francis Seymour Haden
Born 1818, London, England
Died 1910, Bramdean, Hampshire, England
OBJECT
Breaking Up of the Agamemnon, No. 2, 1886
Mezzotint
9 11/16 x 18 1/8 in.
Frederick Goulding, publisher
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418, gift of the class of 1929, on loan to McPherson Museum
ARTIST
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Born 1834, Lowell, Massachusetts
Died 1903, London, United Kingdom
OBJECT
The Forge, 1861
Drypoint
7 5/8 x 12 7/16 in.
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418, on loan to McPherson Museum
ARTIST
Charles W. Bartlett
Born 1860, Dorset, England
Died 1940, Honolulu, Hawaii
OBJECT
Kobe (Street Festival After Rain), 1916
Woodcut
15 ¼ x 10 in.
Watanabe Shōzaburō, publisher
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418, on loan to McPherson Museum
ARTIST
After Emilio Zocchi
Born 1835, Florence, Italy
Died 1913, Florence, Italy
OBJECT
Michelangelo in Youth, ca. 1911
Hollow cast composition with plaster overlay
25 x 15 x 12 in.
P. P. Caproni & Brother sculpture reproductions (Caproni Collection)
CREDITS
McPherson USD 418, on loan to McPherson Museum
OBJECT
Twenty-Third Annual Exhibition, McPherson City Schools, 1933
Pamphlet
CREDITS
Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery Archives, Lindsborg
OBJECT
Smalley’s art catalogue, 1922-1923
CREDITS
McPherson, Kansas
Private collection