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Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Herald
Alex Brownrigg, 5, Garnett, looks for his favorite painting Wednesday afternoon at the Walker Art Gallery inside Garnett’s Public Library, 125 W. Fourth Ave., Garnett. The gallery has been nominated to be one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Art. The Kansas Sampler Foundation will take nominations for 8 Wonders of Art through the end of July and announce 24 finalists in August. Kansas residents may vote for winners.
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Garnett art gallery nominated in Kansas ‘8 Wonders’ contest
By The Herald Staff
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GARNETT — The Walker Art Gallery, Garnett, has been nominated as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Arts.
The Kansas Sampler Foundation, which has been staging 8 Wonders of Kansas votes on a variety of Kansas cultural locations and events, will take nominations for 8 Wonders of art through the end of July and announce 24 finalists in August.
The Franklin County Courthouse was a finalist in the 8 Wonders of Kansas Architecture earlier this year.
The Walker Art Gallery, which houses the Mary Bridget McAuliffe Walker Art Collection, has a John Steuart Curry painting.
The gallery is the only community center and one of few public institutions in Kansas that has a Curry painting.
Curry, a Kansas native, painted the world famous, but controversial, murals on the second floor of the Kansas State Capitol.
Curry’s painting “Tobacco Plant” is on display in the Walker Art Gallery.
“This painting is one of the most unusual Curry ever did, because it is so peaceful and does not contain the turmoil of most of Curry’s work,” Maynard Walker, who gave his collection of early 20th century art to create the Garnett gallery, said.
Walker, a Garnett native, was a prominent art dealer in New York during the 1930s and 1940s and knew and promoted artists who would later become legendary in American art including Curry, Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.
Walker had received a letter from Marguerite Jackman, Garnett, who was compiling letters of famous persons and who asked if he would write a letter verifying his Garnett ancestry for the library, Susan Wettstein, Garnett city administrative assistant, said.
Walker responded with a letter, then months later, wrote asking if the library would be interested if he loaned it some of his paintings, Wettstein said.
Later, Walker gave them outright as a tribute to his mother, Mary Bridget McAuliffe Walker, and then persuaded artists and collectors to make additional donations, she said.
“In giving them up, I feel I have lost nothing, but rather, if from time-to-time some youngster or some oldster gains something by seeing them, I shall feel richer,” Walker said of his gift.
The Walker collection had nearly $2.5 million in early twentieth century paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures by artists including Curry, Robert Henri, Arthur B. Davies, Henry Varnum Poor, Boardman Robinson, Theodoros Stamos, George Grosz, Edouard Manet, Jean Baptiste Corot, Frederick James, Merrill Gage and Dwight and John Kirsch.
The Garnett City Art Collection, 90 works of art by California regional artists from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s, is also exhibited at the gallery.
There is a community art gallery that promotes local and area artist works, quilts, ceramics and other objects.
Financed by a city sales tax approved by voters, the Walker Art Gallery is an addition to the Garnett Public Library and was dedicated in 2001 for the purpose of housing the collection. A mural adorning the outside of the building was created by artist Conrad Snider, Newton, Kansas.
The gallery is open year round and no admission fee is charged. Hours are the same as the library’s: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Docent tours are available by appointment and are free of charge. You may call the Garnett Public Library at (785) 448-3388, or e-mail: garnettlibrary@yahoo.com.
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