Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art

What follows is a small collection of photos of pieces that caught my eye while roaming aimlessly through the museum. I cannot even begin to describe or even comprehend how much art we saw there. It's quite overwhelming, actually.

I do not condone the brewing or drinking of Folgers Coffee, as it is a very poor product that is mass produced. But these pieces were too cool, and hit pretty close to home.

Combining luminous color, staccato brushwork, and academic drawing, Childe Hassam's The Sonata exalts sensory and aesthetic experiences. The painting features a pianist having just performed Beethoven's famously difficult Sonata Appassionata, a score for which she holds in her lap. Her slouched posture, suggesting that the performance has exhausted her, is echoed by the similarly beautiful but fragile-looking yellow rose atop the piano.

Albert Bloch is an artist of international and local importance. Associated with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) while living in Munich, he later served as the head of the Department of Painting and Drawing at the University of Kansas.

The Green Domino, painted in Munich, reveals Bloch's passion for the expressive power of simplified forms and intense color. The curious figures who occupy this brightly colored, prismatically fractured space are based on character from the 17th- and 17th-century Italian improvisational comedic Theatre del Arte.

I liked it not only for the form and colors, but because it looks like my friend, Jeffrey.

Hollywood resulted from Benton's Life magazine-sponsored excursion to Tinseltown in the summer of 1937. The composition unites various aspects of movie-making, revealing Benton's fascination with what he called, "the machinery of the industry" responsible for cinematic efforts. A centrally positioned and scantily clad female figure presides over this chaotic universe, symbolizing the quintessential blonde starlet of the period. The background references the musical In old Chicago about the Great Fire of 1841.

Life rejected the painting as being too risqué for publication in a family magazine.

Performing for an intimate audience of one, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter plays Goodnight Irene, his signature ballad.

White created this portrait three years after the legendary musician's death.

Monet's garden at Giverny, France, became both a sanctuary and a central motif in his art from 1890 until his death in 1926. Amid the tubulence of World War I, Monet's Water Lilies served as a form of resistance, a way to transcend the chaos of the world around him.

This thing is HUGE. So much bigger than you'd expect.

In this jewel-like still life, the letters "Le J" refer to Le Journal--the Paris newspaper that Juan Gris depicted in lavendar on the blue top of a black table.

Kandinsky wrote, "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."

I dig Kandinsky.

Beautiful and functional, yet mass-produced, this tea service's simple geometric forms embody Bauhaus design and philosophy. Designer Margarete Haymann-Löbenstein was one of the first female students at the Bauhaus art and design school. Her art was considered "degenerate" by Nazi Germany.

Painted in rich, warm tones of cream and brown, André Derain's painting evokes the resonanat sound of the guitar. The carefully balanced composition and harmonious flow of the line, together with the musician's casual open collar, rolled shirtsleeves, and crossed leg, further enhance this mood of lyrical peacefulness.

From a guitar player's perspective, his left hand technique is lacking and if he keeps playing that way he will do damage to his wrist.

Saint Barbara was a virgin martyr whose father sequestered her in a tower to discourage suitors. Here she is shown next to the tower, holding the hild of a sword, the instrument of her martyrdom. The missing blade was probably made of silver.

The back of this sculpture is flat, indicating she was meant to be seen only from the front and placed against a wall, pillar, or niche.

And finally, here is a collection of random pieces I photographed with no descriptions...