January 15, 2020
Luminous swaths of green, yellow, and purple spread and seep through the surface of the canvas, capturing the attention of gallery visitors. The paint still looks alive with movement nearly fifty years after its deployment. The brilliant colors captivate viewers immediately, but after observing for a minute or two, one may be inclined to ask,…
November 19, 2019
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we are featuring Indigenous artists and their work that we hold in our permanent collection on our blog, social media, and Collection Highlight E-Newsletters. Our intention is to both recognize the varied contributions of Indigenous artists while acknowledging how their works are disproportionately underrepresented in museum collections nationwide,…
November 5, 2019
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we are featuring Indigenous artists and their work that we hold in our permanent collection on our blog, social media, and Collection Highlight E-Newsletters. Our intention is to both recognize the varied contributions of Indigenous artists while acknowledging how their works are disproportionately underrepresented in museum collections nationwide,…
August 20, 2019
To make Wood Collage: Landscape, George Morrison collected driftwood and fit the pieces together to form what he described as a “painting made of wood.” He assembled a loose grid structure, with the smaller fragments seeming to coalesce into squares, divided by beams that stretch across the composition. In places, the texture of the wood…
June 7, 2019
In expanding the permanent collection, WAM aims to accession new works wisely and with the utmost intention. To our Senior Curator Diane Mullin, this means attentively developing our collections of work by Black and women–identifying contemporary artists, and works considered international art, Minnesota art, and video and other moving-image art. Opening in mid-July, a number of…
May 20, 2019
This July in the Edith Carlson Gallery, WAM opens State Your Intentions: New Works in the WAM Collection. The exhibition showcases not only notable recent additions to the collection but also the intentionality of WAM’s collecting practice. In 1981 when Lyndel King became the director and chief curator, she openly asserted her resolve to…
May 2, 2019
Severed heads roll on the ground, whips swirl through the air, men are forced off a cliff, and a bishop’s eye is gouged with a hand crank, right at the feet of a group of richly dressed noblemen. Albrecht Dürer’s The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand revels in displaying brutal methods of torture and execution….
September 13, 2018
Lisa and E. Gerald O’Brien in front of Douglas Argue’s oil canvas work, Untitled, affectionately known as the “chicken painting.” Jerry O’Brien was an undergraduate art history major at the University of Michigan when he got some thrilling news from Sotheby’s in New York City. The venerable auction house had awarded him one of its…
September 12, 2018
In a self-proclaimed fast-paced world, we are asked to do exactly the opposite of contemporary demands: slow down. The language of slowing down has become somewhat of a cure-all for the malaise of a late capitalist society, sending the message of protest by adopting a slower pace of production. With all of the anti-social media…
May 9, 2018
A woman in pin curls and a gauzy blouse sits before a landscape, gazing into the distance. Her expression is pensive. The black, cloud-like forms edging the scene suggest a gathering storm or impending misfortune. The scrawny tree on the right is stripped of its foliage, and it stands in an expanse of fields…