Crying Giant (Kemper Museum)

A bronze giant, Crying Giant, is placed on the lawn of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, according to the City of Fountains Foundation, with its head in its hands. Crying Giant is by Tom Otterness, born in Wichita in 1952 and known for cartoonlike figures in public spaces. The Delaware Art Museum, which owns another cast, says the work is one in an edition of three created in response to the events of September 11, 2001. The Kemper's collection record lists the bronze as dated 2002, measuring 132 by 78 by 173 inches, and as a museum purchase made possible by a gift from the Kearney Wornall Foundation and the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation. The City of Fountains Foundation puts it on the southwest corner of the lawn in front of the museum, gives its height as 11 feet and its depth as more than 14 feet, and says it weighs almost three tons. The foundation compares the pose to The Thinker, but says this figure is obviously upset, hence the title. A 2007 review in The Pitch, which called Louise Bourgeois's Spider the favorite of the Kemper's lawn sculptures, described Crying Giant as a big-bellied bronze with an enormous bowed head propped up by spindly arms, and judged it forgettable despite its size. The artist's own website lists it as a permanent installation at the Kemper. The Kemper lists free general admission.