A+ Art Blog: Walker Art Center, Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis and The Broad in LA

I was very lucky this year to have my entire holiday season repeated in January when I went to Minnesota to visit my husband's family. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve on three consecutive days and packed in a months fun in four days. PLUS I was able to stop at the Walker Art Center (architect Edward Larrabee Barnes), Weisman Art Museum (architect Frank Gehry) and The Broad (architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler) on my travels in and out of this tiny snowy cold city of Austin which is the Spam capitol of the world.

Walker Art Center Minneapolis

Weisman Art Museum University of Minneapolis

The Broad, Los Angeles

I found this visit to three museums in a short period of time quite stimulating as I was impressed by how each one of them interacted with the art in different ways. The architecture at the Walker Art Center was stunning, but I ended up paying more attention to it than to the art on view. Everywhere you looked was a stunning view of snow covered hills, trees, buildings. The was a top floor room for events and a city scape bar, a crowded restaurant near the entrance. The Weisman Art Museum was completely different. Outside it was stunning, but you could see none of that inside. The art was the feature and you can no real sense of the shape of the building at all. The Broad was a good compromise between the two...small glimpse of the building's structure added just the right amount of texture and natural light to enhance the works.

The private collection at the Broad was just that, not a survey of contemporary art but a personal choice with big names. The show at the Walker had some wonderful stars but quite a few misses and seemed very experimental. Weisman contained what appeared to be a study collection suitable for a university with many modern masters. The Broad gave a first impression of glitz and glamour with shiny works in bright colors. When you got to the modern works by Jasper John and irk, they almost seemed dull and dated. That was the same feeling you got at the Weisman. But the work at the Walker has that same slickness to it which lifted it from looking to immature. .

Walker Art Center

Walker Lobby with video screen

Frank Big Bear gave us a whole wall of collaged images and this is just one tiny section. It is displayed on one side of the restaurant in the lobby.

Claes Oldenburg

more second floor lobby views

more lobby views

Questioning the Wall Itself

Question the Wall Itself is simply an exhibition about space. But it is human space and we relate to it. There were 23 artists who gave us rooms either full or partial or works that made us reflect on public and private interiors. Featured in the exhibition, which includes several new commissions, are works by Jonathas de Andrade, Uri Aran, Nina Beier, Marcel Broodthaers, Tom Burr, Alejandro Cesarco, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Theaster Gates, Ull Hohn, Janette Laverrière/Nairy Baghramian, Louise Lawler, Nick Mauss, Park McArthur, Lucy McKenzie, Shahryar Nashat, Walid Raad, Seth Siegelaub, Paul Sietsema, Florine Stettheimer, Rosemarie Trockel, Cerith Wyn Evans, Danh Vo, and Akram Zaatari.

This first piece by Nina Bieir set the tone with a giant break (beautifully crafted) in the dog who looks like he would love to break the vase in front of him. The floors that these works were set on seemed very deliberate.

Nina Bieir

I was most impressed with this room of walls by Walid Raad. There seems suspended and lit from within. Closer inspection reveals that the darks were actually shadows. These are "restless" shadows as they change constantly as you move. This was one of the themes of the works at The Broad as well especially the Ellsworth Kelly (seen below) which completely changes shape as you move around it.

Walid Raad

Walid Raad - the dark lines here are shadows that
change depending on where your look.

Walid Raad

I have not noticed, until a guard pointed it out to me, that Walid Raad had real hand laid woodwork at the bottom of each panel...the sort of faux floor turned out to be real floor technique and execution.

What you can't see in this picture of Rosemarie Trockel's room was the tiny toy birds that moved back and forth or turned side by side in the case on the left.

Rosemarie Trockel

Janette Laverriere/Nairy Baghramian

Jonathas de Andrade

Unpacking the Box

Also at the Walker was Unpacking the Box anchored by the Marcel Duchamp Boite en valise. But there were mulitlpe modern and fluxus takes on this theme as well. Everything was small, portable and limited editions. These works were all meant to be touched but of course now they are safely displayed behind glass. However a little video with a museum handler in white gloves did demonstration how they could be played with as these works do rather looks like toys. Curators: Jordan Carter and Victoria Sung

Ben Vautier

Marcel Duchamp

Weisman Art Museum

Frank Gehry giant fish sculpture made from slabs of glass and steer structure. This work rises into the antrium of the space.

The Talking Cure

WAM’s Target Studio for Creative Collaboration is a special space in the museum and this show was one where the artist encouraged you to come up with your own stories to add meaning to her works.. Sometimes this seems like a sort of cop out, but the works were so visually strong that they encourage contemplation. If the artist has there own personal story about each peace, even if we don't hear it, there does seem to be an honesty about the work and these works felt that way.

Melissa Stern

The Broad Los Angeles

The Broad is a new contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles which opened in September of 2015. It is home to the 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection. The 120,000-square-foot, $140-million building features two floors of gallery space. I wonder what a person from the future would think of our civilization by viewing this art.

Ellen Gallagher is one of my most favorite artists for this series of work.

Ellsworth Kelly play with your visual senses in this work that is totally flat but seems to change shape as you walk in front of it from side to side.

Sharon Lockhart work also does the same thing if you concentrate on the diagonals. These are photos of the same scene from different angles but with some variations. The are full size and fill one whole room.