Displaying items by tag: walker art center

A measure of respect is due any artist who has the nerve to take on a revered masterpiece in the history of art, aspiring to remake it according to a conception of new conditions in the present. That's what Jim Hodges did in 2008 with a sculpture born of Albrecht Dürer's famous watercolor that shows a chunk of wet mud sprouting a clump of bristling weeds.

Arguably, Dürer's "The Great Piece of Turf" (1503) is the greatest drawing in all of Western art. Hodges' take on it, a delicate glass sculpture sealed inside a nearly 3-foot-tall bell jar, is one of 56 works in the 25-year retrospective of his career concluding its national tour at the UCLA Hammer Museum. "Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take," jointly organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, continues through Jan. 18.

The Walker Art Center announces the launch of the Living Collections Catalogue, a new online publishing platform dedicated to scholarly research on its renowned multidisciplinary collections. This web-based project is an on-going serial publication that replaces the traditional printed collections catalogues of the past. As a dynamic form of publication, it will allow the Walker greater flexibility to dive more deeply into its collections and build new thinking around its diverse holdings, with free and easy access for scholars, researchers, and the public around the world.

Using a design framework that responds to a range of digital devices—whether a laptop, a smartphone, or a tablet computer—the Living Collections Catalogue provides scholars and enthusiasts access to unique documents, original interpretation, and rich media resources about select artworks from its holdings. Each volume in the series will explore a unique aspect of the Walker's collections, reflecting the multidisciplinary interest and editorial perspectives of the institution's curators.

The Vancouver Art Gallery announced that it has selected the Pritzker Prize-winning architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron to design its new building in downtown Vancouver. The 300,000-square-foot facility will provide more than double the space of the museum’s current home. It will be Herzog & de Meuron’s first project in Canada.

Based in Basel, Switzerland, Herzog & de Meuron’s previous projects include the Tate Modern in London, the Perez Art Museum in Miami, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The firm was selected from a group of five finalists, including Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York), KPMB Architects (Toronto), SANAA (Tokyo), and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (New York).

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s new building will include dedicated spaces for the museum’s growing collections, expanded indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces, and new educational facilities. The museum plans to release conceptual designs for the new building in early 2015.

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota is currently hosting the exhibition “Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process.” Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the show is the first major museum exhibition to focus on the drawings and creative process of the iconic American artist Edward Hopper. Known for his enigmatic renderings of rural and urban American life, Hopper’s paintings of seascapes, cityscapes, and their inhabitants are some of the most significant artworks of the 20th century.

“Hopper Drawing” offers viewers a rare glimpse into the creative process of an artist who produced one of the most lauded oeuvres in modern art. Hopper’s drawings illustrate his ever-changing relationships with his subjects, which include the street, the movie theater, the office, his bedroom, and the road. Drawn from the Whitney’s remarkable Hopper collection, which includes 2,500 drawings given to the museum by the artist’s widow, Josephine, “Hopper Drawing” includes drafts of some of the artist’s most recognized works alongside their painted counterparts. Works on view include “Early Sunday Morning,” “New York Movie,” “Nighthawks,” and “Office at Night,” from the Walker’s collection.

“Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process” will be on view at the Walker Art Center through June 20, 2014.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are currently hosting the exhibition “Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George” at the de Young Museum. The show, which was organized by the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the first exhibition to explore Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of Lake George.

Between 1918 and 1934, O’Keeffe would spend months at her husband Alfred Stieglitz’s family estate slightly north of Lake George Village in New York’s Adirondack Park. During this highly productive period, O’Keeffe created over 200 paintings depicting the bucolic, wooded setting, which differ greatly from her well-known renderings of the sparse Southwestern landscape.

“Modern Nature” features 53 works from public and private collections and includes botanical compositions of flowers and vegetables as well as still lifes and paintings of the trees that grew on the 36-acre estate. The exhibition also includes paintings of weathered barns and other structures as well as panoramic landscapes. Works have been loaned from a number of celebrated public institutions including the Seattle Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Walker Art Center.

Colin B. Bailey, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, said, “It is especially gratifying to host this pioneering and scholarly exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Lake George‒period works, as the artist’s ‘Petunias’ (1925), featured in the exhibition, is a highlight of our renowned collection of modernist works by artists associated with the Stieglitz circle.”

The de Young Museum is the only west coast venue for the exhibition. “Modern Nature” will remain on view through May 11, 2014.

The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art has concluded its six-month search for a director to replace Jeffrey Deitch, who stepped down last summer. On January 15, the institution announced that it had selected Philippe Vergne, director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, for the role.

French-born Vergne is a veteran curator and has an extensive background in museum administration both in the U.S. and in Europe. He served as the director of the Musee d’Art Contemporain in Marseille from 1994 to 1997 and in 2005, he was named  deputy director and chief curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Vergne has been at the helm of the Dia Art Foundation since 2008.

The Museum of Contemporary Art is emerging from a tumultuous period, largely caused by Deitch’s tenure at the institution. Deitch was plagued by criticism after he fired longtime chief curator Paul Schimmel in 2012. Following Schimmel’s departure, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger resigned from the museum’s board, leaving it void of artist representation. All four artists were on the director search committee. The museum released a statement saying that Baldessari, Ruscha, Opie and Kruger all expressed enthusiasm for the hire.

Vergne’s appointment comes on the heels of the museum’s announcement that it had reached its goal of a $100 million endowment, most of which was raised in the past year.