Archive Articles
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VA
Articles
An Artist’s Museum
Siri Engberg
Jul 2005
Chuck Close recently characterized the Walker Art Center as an “artist’s museum,” a place with “a tremendous record of incredible engagement with the people who make this stuff.” His relationship with the Walker goes back to 1969, when then-director Martin Friedman purchased Big Self-Portrait out of the artist’s studio. Close’s first self-portrait, the work was also his first sold to a museum and…
VA
Articles
8-Ball: Rirkrit Tiravanija
Paul Schmelzer
Jul 2005
Known for exploring new realms of interactivity and aesthetics, Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has cooked meals for gallery visitors, constructed a fully operational auto-body shop within a museum, built his own low-power television studio, and helped found The Land, a collaborative sustainability community near Chiang Mai, Thailand. Winner of the 2004 Hugo Boss Prize, he was featured in the 1995…
VA
Articles
Garden as Gathering Place
Joan Rothfuss
Jun 2005
Since its opening in 1988, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden has acquired a comfortable patina befitting the well-loved and well-tended public space it has become. Its gravel paths, lined with mature linden trees, are firmly tamped; its perennial garden blooms lush in late summer, and ivy now creeps thickly over its stone walls. More than five million people have strolled the Garden to date, making it…
PA
Articles
The Technical and the Transcendent
Philip Bither
Jun 2005
As art world VIPs and Twin Cities visitors alike filled the William and Nadine McGuire Theater on the Walker’s opening weekend, the whimsy and “dark intrigue” of the space (as the Los Angeles Times would later say) enchanted audiences, and the response from performers was uniformly enthusiastic (Bill Frisell told me it didn’t feel like a new theater but one that had been “broken in” long ago). But it…
PA
Articles
8-Ball: Peggy Shaw
Articles
Jun 2005
Peggy Shaw’s “supremely transgressive art explodes every box which might be used in some vain attempt to contain her: language, societal norms, sex, fashion, romance, art,” writes Craig Lucas in BOMB magazine. This legendary actor/producer/playwright—winner of three OBIEs and three Awards for Emerging Forms from the New York Foundation for the Arts—recently took time to answer some of life’s most—and…
PA
Articles
A Fierce Finale
Judith Katz
Jun 2005
Dyke Night. The name alone has proven so radical that it’s taken the local press years to even print it in its events calendars. Since 1991, queers of all gender stripes have been treated to extravaganzas of song and dance; masterful martial arts and baton twirling; fabulous feats of stand-up comedy; parades of dykes and their dogs; agitprop magic acts; transgressive tale-telling via film, poetry, and…
FV
Articles
Space, Time, and Illusion: Sage Cowles and Molly Davies
Camille LeFevre
May 2005
Camille LeFevre writes about the rare and beautiful performance of Space, Time, and Illusion presented at the Walker as part of Women with Vision 2005. Read the review on mnartists.org.
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Articles
Matthew Carter
Andrew Blauvelt
Apr 2005
Since its inception, the Walker Art Center has embraced design not only as a programming activity but also as an important element in forming its public image. The Walker practically invented the modernist institutional identity for museums, which favored sans-serif typefaces, generous white space, and a grid system to arrange words and images. This style had dominated its graphic identity for more…
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Herzog & de Meuron
Andrew Blauvelt
Apr 2005
In 1999, the Walker Art Center engaged the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron to develop a master plan and design for an expanded facility. Central to the Walker’s vision was the creation of not only additional galleries to display its growing collections, but also new spaces, such as a theater, to house and present multidisciplinary programs. The concept also included a number of gathering places…