Inside Out
“Starchitect” Frank Gehry recently returned to the Weisman Art Museum to administer the finishing touches on a job he left semi-complete 18 years ago.
Image credit: Photo by puroticorico via Creative Commons
There’s nary a building in the Twin Cities that generates a more polarizing public opinion than Minneapolis’s Weisman Art Museum. Prominently perched along the Mississippi River at the eastern terminus of the Washington Avenue Bridge, the impossibly angular structure serves as the gateway to the University of Minnesota’s main campus. Whether it’s perceived as a sensational cubist sculpture or merely an egregious eyesore, the Weisman flat-out refuses to be ignored—perhaps now more than ever.
In October, the museum reopened its doors after a yearlong expansion project that added not only 8,100 square feet of interior gallery space (to its existing 11,000), but additional exterior adornment. For starters, check out the shiny, swooping canopy that covers an expanded walkway on the north side of the museum.
“Starchitect” Frank Gehry returned to administer the finishing touches on a job he left semi-complete 18 years ago—one that foreshadowed his iconic, stainless steel-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (which opened in 1997). But unlike its larger Basque counterpart, the new Weisman features a judicious use of juxtaposition on its multifaceted façade.
“We were actually all a little surprised when the designs came back and there was so much brick,” explains Weisman director and chief curator Lyndel King. “But this is primarily a brick campus… so I think [the decision] was out of respect for that.”
Don’t equate bricks with boring, though. The previously flat south and east sides of the Weisman (where the use of brick is heaviest) now resemble a handful of stacked cubes that cantilever in various angles. Glimpses of stainless steel peek out from nooks and crannies where the boxes meet, giving them the look of half-wrapped Christmas gifts. This same geometric cluster comprises the bulk of the expanded gallery space, which will allow for more of the Weisman’s extensive permanent collection to be put on display.
King says there are about 20,000 objects in the permanent collection, but in its former incarnation the museum only had room to show a fraction of that—meaning most public space was used for temporary exhibitions, programs and lectures. The temporary exhibitions gave audiences rare chances to view never-before-seen works, but “what we were not able to do is to provide [visitors] with an opportunity to engage with art in a deeper way,” King says. “My dream would be for students to say to their parents, ‘We have to go to the Weisman while you’re here because I have to show you my favorite painting or sculpture.’”
The new additions, including the Woodhouse Gallery for American art, the Edith Carlson Gallery for women’s art and the Target Gallery for collaborative arts, not only afford the museum the physical space for new pieces (like previously unseen paintings by Georgia O’ Keefe and a life-size sculpture of museum namesake Frederick Weisman by über-realist Duane Hanson). They also boast an atmosphere much more conducive to a pleasurable viewing experience. This time around, Gehry was able to design the Weisman’s interior with specific collections in mind, and the art clearly benefits from functional (yet playful) touches like softly glowing skylights and jagged, dropped ceilings.
With new signage that screams “FREE!” on all the Weisman’s doors, the hope is to draw the public and students in—if even for 15 minutes—to experience art in a world-class facility. “We just wanted to give students an equal opportunity to learn to love art as they had to learn to love football,” King says. And given the way the Gophers have played so far this year, the new-and-improved Weisman should have no problem packin’ ’em in.
+ Weisman Art Museum, 333 E. River Pkwy., Mpls.; 612.625.9494, weisman.umn.edu
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