State of the Arts Category Archive: Museums

Teens honor Day of the Dead at the MIA

Posted at 4:45 PM on October 30, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums

Olga Guzmán checks out her ofrenda hanging at the MIA
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

Last night the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was filled with Latino-American families, there to see and celebrate the artwork of their children. The first floor gallery area and nearby social room was overflowing with little kids working on art projects, girlfriends and boyfriends chowing down on pork and chicken tamales, and parents taking pictures of their children next to their "ofrendas" or offerings, made in honor of Day of the Dead.

Olga's ofrenda. Photo by Dan Dennehy

Olga Guzmán hasn't lost anyone close to her, so she made a more traditional ofrenda,
depicting skeletons dancing, singing and sharing a meal. This is her second year making an ofrenda at the MIA, and she really likes it.

"I'm really busy - working, going to school, writing papers - and I don't get a chance to be creative with art. So I really love when a chance like this comes along because I feel my creative side can come out."


All of the ofrendas were created in crates, used to symbolize the migrant workers who came to the United States looking to support their families.

José Miguel Guerrero stands next to his ofrenda.
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

The teens are all students of El Colegio magnet school in Minneapolis. As part of the process, they were given video cameras (provided by Best Buy) with which to document their projects, and talk about their work. Administrative Director David Greenberg says he's thrilled with the project and what it offers his students.

It's really a good deal for our students to see their work in one of the most important museums in the region, to know that their work, thoughts and experiences are valued and important. To just see them do those video blogs, and talk into the camera about their work and their lives, knowing that people are going to see that and care about it and respond to it...it just makes them reflect on who they are and know themselves better.

Tameka Boyce at the MIA reception with her parents.
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

18-year old Tameka Boyce chose to use her ofrenda to honor her grandmother, who died in 2004. The crate is filled with pink, her grandmother's favorite color, a poem she wrote and candles with the names of different family members. Boyce says she learned a lot, both about art and about video, in the process.

"It's great! It's surprising that my artwork's in the MIA. I can brag about it, it's very cool, my family's very interested and proud of me and so I like it."

Domini Guzmán with his ofrenda. Photo by Amanda Hankerson

MIA curator Joe Horse Capture organized the Young People's Ofrenda exhibition and he thinks the project has managed to accomplish a lot for everyone involved.

This is a type of artwork that normally our audience doesn't see. And so I think it's important, because we're an encyclopedic museum, for them to be exposed to that. Also this [Latino] community is really important to our larger community - and we'd like to see more of them here at the museum.

These small ofrendas are very powerful. You know this project has been successful when a parent comes to you and shakes your hand with tears in their eyes thanking you for creating this opportunity for their child because it has meant so much to them.

Young People's Ofrenda runs through November 14 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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Artists vote in four new representatives at the MIA

Posted at 2:55 PM on October 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is an encyclopedic museum - that means it tries to cover just about everything artistically, from design to ancient pottery to the great impressionists. The most modern stuff it tends to leave to the Walker Art Center.

However the MIA does dedicate some gallery space to the work of contemporary Minnesota artists. That space is curated by a panel of artists, who are elected by the community. The panel is comprised of 7 members; each year, either 3 or 4 members rotate off to preserve some continuity of leadership. This last Saturday four new panelists were voted in, and I thought I'd find out just why they're interested in the job.

The new panelists are Megan Vossler, David Petersen, Andy Sturdevant, and Brian Frink.

All of them underscored the importance of the MAEP program, because it gives emerging artists the opportunity to show their work in a truly professional and high-profile setting, alongside world-class masterpieces.

Andy Sturdevant adds:

Another important piece is the fact that the MAEP is almost 35 years old. That makes it one of the oldest venues in Minnesota for working artists to exhibit new work. Most currently existing gallery spaces and nonprofits open to working artists don't go that far back. When you trace the MAEP shows and exhibiting artists back through the decades, you can follow a very clear line of lineage that tells you a lot about the sort of art that has been made in Minnesota. That sort of institutional memory is really valuable.

Megan Vossler says being in an MAEP show was such an incredible experience for her, she's eager to give something back, and to participate in the program in a different role.

The duties of panelists include attending monthly meetings at the MIA, selecting exhibitions from submitted proposals, and working with the MAEP Coordinator to guide the overall direction and development of the program. Panel coordinator Chris Atkins says current development includes connecting with artists and institutions around the state, and integrating the MAEP even more into the programming of the museum, so that the artists can take full advantage of the museum's resources.

Brian Frink sees the MAEP as "the hub of a large cultural wheel." He says for the panel to do its work well, it needs to be in constant dialogue with artists and with the MIA.

About a year ago the previous MAEP coordinator left abruptly, making many artists question the MIA's oversight of the program. So Andy Sturdevant thinks it's crucial the panel is transparent in everything it does.

While all the panelists give kudos to the MAEP for what it's accomplished, some also see more work that can be done. Vossler states:

I think restoring the number of exhibitions back to five- currently reduced to four - is important to maintain a diverse selection of shows and provide adequate opportunity for the artists to receive a show.

David Petersen sees lots of potential for creating new connections, engaging more artists to participate, and develop new sources of funding.

That's a lot to accomplish in two years. I think I'll check back then and see what they were able to get done...

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A Night at the Museum

Posted at 3:55 PM on October 19, 2009 by Marianne Combs (6 Comments)
Filed under: Museums

When a big exhibition comes around, a museum likes to throw on a big party to celebrate it. Such was the case this past weekend at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as it marked the opening of "The Louvre and the Masterpiece."

Now I don't often make opening parties - by that time I've usually gone to a press preview of the show, have reported on the exhibition, and am ready to move on to the next story. But I know that many people have their notions about museums and galleries, and the kind of people who show up to their events. "Too snooty for me" some friends say, or "boring!" So, armed with a Flipcam, I decided to attend Saturday's opening and bring back tangible proof of what one of these events is like. Maybe I'd do some myth-busting, or maybe I'd simply confirm those preconceptions.

I have to say, when I first walked into the MIA Saturday night, I was surprised. There was a bass beat booming that was audible from the coatcheck, and the regular museum lights had been replaced with violet flourescents that made the main halls feel more like a downtown club than an encyclopedic museum. There were drink stations EVERYWHERE, as well as dancers clad in 18th century French frocks performing on little stages. People were kicking back in comfy furniture next to centuries old roman sculpture, and watching light shows around the fountain.

The people-watching was worth the price of admission, in my opinion. Just seeing how folks dressed up, some with a French flair, was fun. But take a look at the clip and tell me: does this look like a fun party to you? Are you now more or less tempted to go to a museum opening? Why? Would you feel comfortable at a party like this? Entertained? Bored? And how does it compare to the image you had in your head? If this isn't your cup of tea, what kind of art party would you rather attend?

My little revelation of the evening: museums don't serve red wine. It's just trouble waiting to happen.

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A conversation with the director of the Louvre

Posted at 9:16 PM on October 16, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums

Henri Loyrette, Director and President of the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Louvre Director Henri Loyrette is in town this weekend for the opening festivities of the "The Louvre and the Masterpiece" exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk with him.

When asked about bringing masterpieces from the Louvre museum to Minneapolis, Loyrette demurred:

You cannot say only it's the Louvre coming to Minneapolis because so often Minneapolis came to the Louvre you were so generous in lending your works and we were so proud to have it in our exhibitions. It's a kind of exchange which is important.

Loyrette singled out a few different works at the MIA which he wouldn't mind having in his own collection, notably a portrait by Degas. He said the MIA has a collection with not just the "standards" but also some really nice surprises. It's a collection the community should be proud of, he said.

As the head of arguably the most famous museum in the world, Loyrette holds a powerful place in the global arts and culture scene, and it's a position he handles with enthusiasm. Just last Sunday Loyrette was the subject of a lengthy profile in the New York Times. In his 8 years at the Louvre (he previously served at the Musee D'Orsay for 18 years), Loyrette has gained a reputation for shaking things up a bit.

One of his major projects was to take on a three year collaboration with the High Museum in Atlanta. Here's Loyrette's explanation of the project, and what each of the museums got out of it:

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It was that collaboration with the High Museum that paved the way for "The Masterpiece and the Louvre" exhibition coming to Minneapolis. While Loyrette is seeking out partnership with American museums, it should be noted the Louvre holds hardly any American art, a fact Loyrette deplores:

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Some people might not know that the Louvre has a very particular place in France's national museum structure, alongside the Musee D'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, and others. That's why it's collection will never include anything more recent than the mid-19th century:

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Finally, I asked Loyrette about the challenges facing his, and all museums - that is, to get people to linger longer over the artwork.

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Director Loyrette is in town through Sunday, during which time he'll get to know the MIA's collection, and pay a visit to the Guthrie Theater. The Guthrie was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the same man behind the design for the new Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.

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A mini-Louvre in Minneapolis

Posted at 2:57 PM on October 15, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums

Georges de La Tour, French, 1593-1652
The Card-Sharp with Ace of Diamonds, 17th century, Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Department of Paintings, RF 1972-8
Photo: Gérard Blot. © Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

There's a lot of excitement in the air at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this week. Its new exhibition "The Louvre and the Masterpiece" is, according to at least one curator, taking the MIA to a whole new level of museumship.

While the exhibition does not include Mona Lisa or Winged Victory, it's not a bunch of leftovers from the storage room, either. The exhibition is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the Louvre and the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. It was just weeks after her arrival as Director and President of the MIA that Kaywin Feldman stunned her staff when she announced the Louvre exhibition would be making it's wasy to Minneapolis, as well.

What the more than sixty works of art on display offer is an opportunity to reflect on what actually constitutes a "masterpiece."

The Blue Head, 20th-century forgery in the style of the late 18th Dynasty, blue glass, Department of Egyptian Antiquities, E 11658. Photo (c) 2008 Musée du Louvre/Georges Poncet.

For example, The Blue Head, shown above, was in the Louvre's collection for almost a century before it was determined that the glass sculpture could not have possibly been made in the 18th Dynasty. But when it was "discovered" in the 1920s, Egyptomania was all the rage, and everyone wanted to believe it was the real thing. Even today, the Louvre poster featuring the blue head is one of the museum's best sellers. So is it a masterpiece, or isn't it?

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian, 1452-1519
Drapery Study, 1470-1479, Brush and tempera on linen
Musée du Louvre, Department of Graphic Arts, RF 41905
Photo: J.G. Berizzi. © Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

Then there are those masterpieces which represent a simple sketch in a painter's notebook, but are such beautifully accomplished renderings that they make the viewer gasp. The above study by da Vinci appears almost three dimensional, so exactly does he convey the folds of the cloth. The drawing is not a "finished work" but time and artistic criticism have deemed it a masterpiece nonetheless.

The exhibition inspired MIA curators to hunt through their own departments looking for equivalent masterpieces (and pseudo-masterpieces). Their findings are on display in a side gallery, and include work by Jasper Johns, Francis Bacon, and William Blake.

"The Louvre and the Masterpiece" opens to the general public Sunday, and runs through January 10.

Check back tomorrow for an interview with Louvre Director Henri Loyrette.

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Weisman Art Museum expansion begins

Posted at 11:11 PM on October 1, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture, Museums

Image courtesy Weisman Art Museum

Construction crews began work this week on the Weisman Art Museum's $14 million expansion. That's two years behind schedule, and for $2.5 million more than originally budgeted. The final design also leaves out a long-sought-after and initially-hyped museum café.

However the main goal of the expansion - to add more gallery space - is intact. The project will create more than 8,000 feet divided into five new rooms. Four will display objects from the Weisman's permanent collection, doubling the number of collection objects the Weisman can display at any given time.

A fifth gallery, funded by a $2 million gift from Target, will be dedicated to cross-disciplinary collaborations between University of Minnesota faculty, other scholars, and artists.

The expansion of the Weisman will require it to close for approximately a year, beginning in October 2010. It's slated to reopen to the public in it's expanded form in fall 2011.

For more background on this story, click here.

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Examining our animal nature

Posted at 12:39 PM on August 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Sculpture

Hoodie, 2009

Minnesota artist Roxanne Jackson is interested in the blurry line between human and animal behavior. Her latest show "We Believe in Some Thing" opens today at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

In it Jackson documents the many ways in which cultures express our hybrid nature. Whether it's Native American folklore, or cult films about vampires and werewolves, Jackson takes our fascination with our animal cousins and pushes the exploration even further.

In popular entertainment, animalistic traits are often used to portray a character as either an outcast, or possessed of an untamed aggressive nature. But Jackson's images almost beg the question "aren't we the real animals?"

Devouring Mother, 2009

Jackson also looks at how combining human and animal form carries with it a spriitual power in many cultures, both for good and evil. Whether it's a sphynx (a lion with a human head), a harpie (half woman, half bird), or a centaur (half man, half horse) we either fear or revere these creatures that are "more than human."

Looking at Jackson's sculptures makes me wonder if we're not just a little bit jealous of our animal counterparts. The freedom from the constraints of modern civilization, the physical power, the heightened senses... is it no wonder we love watching movies about a man named "Wolverine?"

Roxanne Jackson's "We Believe in Some Thing" runs through November 1 at the MIA.

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We are what we eat. And we eat a lot.

Posted at 5:00 PM on August 25, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums, Photography

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

The Bell Museum of Natural History has announced it's hosting the exhibition "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" this fall. The exhibition grew out of the book by the same name. Like the book, the exhibition explores how different cultures consume food: what type of food they eat, how much of it, and how much they pay for it.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

The Bell Museum's exhibit focuses on 10 cultures, many with ties to Minnesota, and lets visitors "shop" for global produce from world markets and track that food as it travels from field to fork. The exhibit features special sections on the rise of fast food culture, the evolution and history of food plants, current and ancient agricultural methods and the practice of raising and eating meat.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Since many people these days are interested in "greening" their lives and households, they might be particularly interested in witnessing the difference in packaging from one culture to the next. Some cultures appear to live entirely without packaging, while others seem entirely dependent on it.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Other issues raised by the exhibition are nutrition, obesity, sustainability, and the "locavore" movement. "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" opens at the Bell Museum in Minneapolis on October 17 and will run for 6 months.

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Slant/Light/Volume

Posted at 6:13 PM on August 14, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Design, Museums, Sculpture

(MPR photo by Euan Kerr. Click on image to enlarge.)

If you are passing through the Walker Art Center anytime soon, set aside a few minutes to see "Slant/Light/Volume." There's just one piece in the show, an untitled work by Robert Irwin.

It's quite simple: a huge piece of fabric stretched across an entire gallery at an angle, lit from behind. Seen in person, it is stunning, a glowing plane hanging among the faint echoes bouncing through the Walker's chambered galleries.

The piece was designed for the opening of what was then the Walker's new building in 1971. It hasn't been displayed for 20 years, and it's definately worth experiencing now.

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How do you clean a sunburst?

Posted at 1:14 PM on July 30, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Sculpture

Many years ago I watched a crew from the Dale Chihuly studio hang the hundreds of blown glass spirals which make up the sunburst which hangs high above the entrance hall at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

As a result I have always had a soft spot for the piece, even though given its weight and fragility I have always found it a little scary too.

So it was a delight to see the MIA posted pictures of the annual sunburst cleaning. You can find it here, but here is a sample:

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Memories of Merce

Posted at 12:00 PM on July 27, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Dance, Museums, Music

Merce Cunningham, who died Sunday age 90, had a long and fruitful relationship with the dance community in Minnesota. He appeared here regularly throughout his career, and had a deep affection for the Walker Art Center, the huge stage at Northrop Auditorium, and the College of St Ben's, where he visited to teach and finally last year to present his huge work "Ocean" in a quarry near St Cloud.

Merce Cunningham in 2008 at the Walker Art Center (Photo courtesy of the Cameron Wittig for Walker Art Center)

I was lucky enough to meet Cunningham several times over the years, and he was always kind and patient as I struggled to find a way to describe for a radio audience what he and his company did.

The first time we met was on the side of the stage at Northrop, where I was told I could have something like seven minutes with him as the rehearsal schedule was so tightly packed.

To be honest, I was having trouble getting my head around how Cunningham worked. His interest was in the moment. He explored the intersection of chance - often in the form of the music - with the beauty of the movement he created for his dancers, a process he usually did through "chance operations," like the flipping of a coin.

Usually the dancers did not hear the music for a dance before the first performance. In the case of this particular Northrop show, the music was produced by a small keyboard attached to several cassette recorders. Before every show the keyboard player would rummage through a pile of pre-recorded cassettes and draw a few at random to put in the players. No one knew what sounds the score would produce on any given night.

As I naively tried to probe for meaning in his dances, Cunningham would giggle gently and keep explaining he didn't know what they meant, it was all up to the audience to decide. I have to admit that as my seven minutes drained away, I felt more and more panicked, and the giggling made it worse. It was only afterwards when I talked to a dancer and really thought about the element of chance in all our lives that it became clear, and I was able to write my piece.

His last performance in Minnesota was a bittersweet event. "Ocean" was a project dreamed up by Cunningham's long-time artistic and life partner John Cage. He wanted to surround dancers on a circular stage first by an audience, and then by an orchestra of 150 musicians. The idea was to bathe the audience in sound. When Cage died in 1992, Cunningham said he thought Ocean was dead too, but interest continued in the piece, and the St. Cloud performance became part of the effort to capture Cunningham's major works on film.

Even as he worked on the performance, Cunningham was clearly fascinated in what he was learning from the challenges of the piece. The potential for the "Ocean" circular stage clearly delighted him.

"Because ordinarily with a conventional stage the focus is front and center, and with something in the round it's all focus or there is no focus," he said. And he laughed that laugh again.

I have to say the strongest image I have of Cunningham came at another event, "Fluxarama," held in the fitness club in the Target Center in Minneapolis. The event was part of the "In the Spirit of Fluxus" show which explored the work and legacy of that iconoclastic group. The idea was to fill a non-traditional space with art, and Cunningham brought his company to perform on the basketball court.

It was a wild evening filled with enjoyable weirdness, but I have to admit I stood and watched Cunningham for several minutes. He was sitting on a folding chair courtside between performances. Few people seemed to pay him any attention as he sat just watching the crowds milling around him. Here he was, the man described as one of the most influential choreographers in modern dance, soaking in the ambiance of the waves of humanity around him.

He had a slight smile on his face, as if he was watching a beautiful dance unfolding before him. And being Merce Cunningham, a beautiful dance was probably what he saw.

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Art Hounds: Mixing it up

Posted at 9:17 AM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Culture, Events, Film, Museums, Music, Sculpture, Theater

One of the delights of the late summer is that it's time when local arts folks mix it up a little.

Take tonight at IFP Minnesota's Fresh Fete at the Varsity Theater. As the local organization devoted to independent film it will of course be showing films, but blending some chat and a lot of music too. The film comes from local writer director Emily Haddad who won IFP Mn's Fresh Film grant last year and used it to make "Egg Timer" which will premier at 6.30. There will be a conversation between Mystery Science Theater 3000's Bill Corbett and local playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher. The evening will be rounded out by local icon Willie Murphy and the Angel Headed Hipsters and pianist John Sims.

If you haven't seen the Walker Art Center's examination of conceptual art "The Quick and the Dead" - or even if you have - it's worth a visit. There are some 90 pieces by 53 artists, some of which are designed to change over time, hence the value in returning. Take for example Claes von Oldenburg's "The Garden" which involved burying 100 objects and then exhuming and displaying one item per day. He didn't specify what the object should be, but the Walker staff chose lemons, and you can see the results in jars in the Center's lower lobby.

After sell out shows last week the Trylon Microcinema returns with another Buster Keaton film "The Navigator." Live accompaniment is supplied by the Dreamland Faces, complete with singing saws.

If you are considering a little road trip this weekend, there is the final weekend of the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, and the always whacky Free Range Film Festival in Webster, about half an our south of Duluth. Movie shorts in a barn, how can you miss?

And for the truly dedicated sports fan the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis is presenting live coverage on the big screen of the Tour de France. You can watch the cyclists sweat while sitting in the finest art deco movie house the Twin Cities has to offer. Admission is free, although they are collecting non-perishable goods for local food shelves, or a $2 donation.

And of course there is all the great stuff ferreted out by the Art Hounds Want to be one of them? Sign up!

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New Walker season tests limits of performance

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Theater

Image from "Call Cutta in a Box: An Intercontinental Phone Play," courtesy of Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center has released its 2009-2010 performing arts season (although as of this writing it's not posted on the Walker website), and it's as ambitious as ever. It highlights artists from around the world along with those here at home. In many cases the Walker has commissioned new works that involve collaboration across disciplines, and international borders. American guitarist Bill Frisell is paired with an Iraqi oud player, while a Brooklyn dance company is collaborating with another troupe from West Africa.

I spoke with curator Philip Bither about the season. He described many of the performances in detail. Among them, one really caught my attention. It's a performance by a German group called Rimini Protokoll, which will run for a month during the Walker's Out There Festival. It needs to run that long because each performance is limited to two people: you, and a call worker in India. I'll let Bither explain the rest:

...you go into a room and you get a cell phone call from a call worker in Calcutta. You end up going through a series of structured conversations and you get to know this person very well. You end up drinking some tea that they're able to turn on all the way from Calcutta. You taste some spices from India, and by the end of 'the show' you're in front of a computer screen and moving a mouse that's hidden under a planter, and you see each other. It's a remarkably different kind of theater. You and what you bring with your life and stories is as much part of that theater experience as what's happening 'on the stage,' which in this instance is in Calcutta, through the computer.

Part script, part improv, part cultural exchange, this one-on-one drama is an example of how artists are playing with our everyday experiences (such as the computer service call that ends up connecting us with someone on the other side of the planet) to tell stories of human connection and disconnection. It's just that in an era of globalization, what constitutes an "everyday experience" is changing rapidly. In today's world technology has the power to transform a desk with a computer and a cellphone into a theater. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

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We Art Minnesota: Ch'ing Dynasty jade plate

Posted at 12:44 PM on July 9, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, We Art Minnesota

Claire Thoen sent in our latest submission to the We Art Minnesota series. Her favorite piece of art is found in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' permanent collection. She writes:

There are hundreds of works of art that I love and could be considered favorites but I am drawn to this one because it had a place in someone's daily life. I like to think of the delight it gave to those who used it.

It's translucence draws me to it and a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is not really complete until I've visited this precious object one more time.

Claire took these pics with her cell-phone (nice job!) - here's her favorite vantage point, highlighting the plate's translucence:

The plate's label reads:

China, Ch'ing Dynasty Plate, 18th-19th century Jadeite

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Augustus L. Searle

Centrifigal tiers of fluted petals form a chrysanthemum design on both sides of this thin, Indian-style plate, the petals of the flower curling under at the rim. As is typical of much Mughal style jade carving, the quality of the stone is superb and the standard of craftmanship exceptional. Records show this work to have been purchased from the imperial collection in the early 20th century.

Thanks for the submission, Claire!

And for the rest of you out there, if you have a favorite piece of Minnesota art that you'd like to submit, send it on in.

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Weeping Barbie syndrome strikes Walker Art Center

Posted at 4:15 PM on July 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums

Image of Joseph Beuys' Stempelplastik, one of the two items actively deteriorating, courtesy of the Walker Art Center.

Recently Slate.com's Sam Kean wrote on the challenges of preserving plastic art. It's a startling piece, detailing how a handful of unstable plastics are breaking down, wreaking havoc on museum collections worldwide. Symptoms include flaking, peeling, discoloration, and as Kean explains, smell:

Often the only clue a plastic is degrading is its odor. Some begin to smell like ammonia or take on a sickly new-car smell. PVC weeps chlorine, giving it a swimming-pool smell, and any plastics with acetate eventually give off whiffs of acetic acid, which is found in vinegar. Other plastics are redolent of burnt milk, burnt hair, celery, cinnamon, raspberry jam, or camphor "muscle rub."

I checked in with the Walker Art Center to see whether its collection has been suffering from any of these symptoms, and if so, what they're doing about it. Here's what Walker associate registrar Joe King had to report:

The Walker has two works in the collection, both by Joseph Beuys, that are actively deteriorating. Both are made of PVC, as the Slate article discusses. The plasticizer is migrating out of the plastic, making the surface wet and sticky. This has been called weeping Barbie syndrome as Barbie dolls from the 1950s suffer from the same deterioration. We have had the works conserved, cleaned and wrapped to slow the loss of the plasticizer. The works are stored in isolation to prevent damage to adjacent works. At this point there is nothing further that can be done with them, except to freeze them. We are hoping that as additional research is done, a solution for the preservation of these works will emerge.

For now, those artists who choose to work with plastics are encouraged by curators and conservationists to read the directions carefully, especially as a number of "green" plastics are coming on the market, made specifically to be biodegradable.

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Rock the Garden Re-hash

Posted at 4:05 PM on June 22, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Music

If you missed Rock the Garden, and are getting a little jealous of your friends who keep raving about The Decemberists or Solid Gold or Calexico, you can get at least some of the flavor of the day by checking The Current's photostream here.

(Update: 6/24/09 - You can also read a review, and watch some video clips at How Was The Show?)

In addition, below is a high-speed rendering of the set-up, the crowds and the late night take down captured by the Walker (unfortunately there are a few major time gaps, but still fun to watch the hordes).

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Documenting life as a Somali-American

Posted at 2:53 PM on June 22, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums, Photography

Photographer Abdi Roble has been following Somalis for the last several years. He's tracked them from refugee camps in Kenya to shopping markets in Anaheim to offices of power and influence in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is known as "Little Mogadishu" amongst Somalis, and is home to some of their greatest success stories. Below is a slide show of just a sampling of the photographs now on display at the Weisman Art Museum, with narration by Roble.

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Local ad agency's work to be added to MOMA collection

Posted at 12:58 PM on June 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Museums

Mineapolis-based Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) received top honors for three of its video creations at a recent competition hosted, in part, by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Two of the short animated films were advertisements for United Airlines ("sea orchestra" is above, the "heart" ad can be found here).

In addition, a 30-minute film created for Chambers Art Hotel in Minneapolis was also recognized for creative marketing. It features what appears to be surveillance video of hotel rooms and other corners of the building (personally I like the couple swing dancing in their room, best, although the woman feeding the sheep is restful). To see a clip that features samples of the Chambers surveillance camera shots, visit the BD'M website, go to "new work" and look under "brand experiences."

The Show's winning entries initially will be screened at MoMA, and then will go on tour across the U.S., including a stop in Minneapolis later this year. Once the tour ends, the 2009 Show winners will become part of MoMA's permanent film collection.

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A builder of floating worlds suddenly finds himself in one.

Posted at 3:20 PM on June 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Photography

MPR's Euan Kerr reported this morning on Tomas Saraceno's new exhibition Lighter Than Air at the Walker Art Center. Saraceno likes to create floating worlds that challenge our notions of what can and cannot be. What didn't make the radio story was an account of the natural world taking Saraceno by surprise. He had travelled to Bolivia to shoot a movie out on the salt flats, and it started raining.

We were super tired and I was falling asleep in a small tent that was like a swimming pool - it was all wet, very shallow - two or three centimeters of water. A friend of mine said "come come!" I said "what's going on?" We ran outside and there was no moon - all the stars were reflected on the water and you couldn't see the water anymore. It was super crazy - stepping on the three Marias and the cosmos! It was the best 3D massive cinema I've ever been in - in real scale. It was a super great experience.

By day the salt flats became an immense mirror to the clouds and blue sky, and Saraceno found himself walking around in the floating world he so often tries to create through his work.

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Your personal tour of a Pre-Raphaelite painting

Posted at 10:37 AM on June 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Painting

The Minneapolis Insitute of Arts new exhibition "Sin and Salvation: William Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision" opens this Sunday. While many people are drawn to pre-raphaelite paintings for their fair skinned beauties and Shakespearean settings, at the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood was a moral narrative. According to MIA curator Patrick Noon, who was kind enough to give me a sneak peek of the exhibition, it was William Holman Hunt who stayed true to that moral vision more than any other of his peers.

Let's take Holman Hunt's classic work "The Awakening Conscience" (shown above). What's your first impression? We see a woman who's stood up from the lap of her suitor, and is looking out an open window - we can see the window in the reflection of the mirror behind her. But what else can we figure out about this story by looking closely at the image?

The biggest clue comes from looking at her hands. You'll notice that the young lady has rings on all of her fingers except one - her RING finger. That's right - she's single, and sitting in the lap of a young gentleman! Not only that, but the garment she's wearing is a sleeping gown. So we now know that this young woman is actually the man's mistress, not a young maiden he's courting for marriage.

Secondly, we're given some symbolism in the painting as well. Note the cat that's toying with a little bird. The cat's been distracted by something (probably the young woman standing up so abruptly), and the bird has a chance to escape. The position of the bird and the cat mirrors the position of the young man and his mistress. In essence, he's a cat toying with his prey, but she may have some hope of escaping him.

Finally, what's at the center of this painting? It's not the young woman's face, it's the view out the window - a view of natural beauty that makes the small apartment feel claustrophobic in comparison. In Pre-Raphaelite paintings, nature was often seen as a symbol of morality and truth. The natural world, in all its splendor, is calling to the young woman with an offer of redemption. Thus, the title: The Awakening Conscience.

There are plenty more symbols throughout the piece underscoring the main theme. And just as interesting as what's on the canvas is the story behind the painting. The model for the image of the young lady was actually Holman Hunt's own mistress, Annie Miller. Holman Hunt was hoping to convince Miller to leave behind her life as a mistress, and reform herself into a good woman of society he could marry with dignity. She didn't take to his idea of a good wife however, and they eventually broke up.

Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

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