Kansas City, View of the West Bottoms

Series TitleKansas City, Summer 1989

Artist Wilbur Niewald (American, 1925 - 2022)

Date1989

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 29 × 36 × 1 1/4 inches (73.66 × 91.44 × 3.18 cm)
Framed: 29 3/4 × 36 3/4 × 1 5/8 inches (75.57 × 93.35 × 4.13 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation

Object numberF90-14/4

Signedverso (in ink): "Wilbur Niewald 'Kansas City, View of the West Bottoms' 1989"

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Contemporary Art

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DescriptionA view from a grassy hill, overlooking railroad tracks beyond which lie clusters of multi-storied buildings resembling warehouses. Just beyond the immediate foreground, a group of trees rises through the composition to the high horizon line. To the right of these trees a structure resembling a footbridge is suspended over the road below.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Wilbur Niewald's paintings of many Kansas City neighborhoods, like this one of the distant West Bottoms, have been characterizes as "full of plain truths about things." His striking perspective enlivens what might otherwise b a rather ordinary urban scene.

At the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, the West Bottoms was home to the Osage, Kaáⁿze (Kaw) and Missouria tribes. Following their forced removal and encroachment by white settlers, the area became a trading hub and then the center of Kansas City's livestock industry. Today it is home to an eclectic range of galleries, antique stores, artist studios, and more.

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