Minneapolis Modern
April 2008
Spread out across opposite banks of the Mississippi, Minneapolis developed around St. Anthony Falls, a low, modest cascade on that mighty waterway. During the 19th century, the city’s riverside sawmills buzzed, and its economy boomed. Railroads, banks, a grain exchange—the city had them all, along with immigrant settlers who set up churches and an array of cultural institutions. Among the arrivals were Scandinavians who brought a love of the arts and a strong sense of civic-mindedness to the community they helped build. Those attitudes still endure today—so don’t even think about littering here. At the same time, affluent, confident and, in many ways, innovative Minneapolis feels both laid-back and, with a refreshing lack of affectation in some quarters, seriously hip.
For art lovers, this Midwestern city—home to both the Pillsbury Doughboy and more buildings designed by international superstar architects than most states have within all of their borders—offers big treats and unexpected surprises. Compared to New York or Los Angeles, its small art market is upside down: In Minneapolis, it is not commercial galleries that lead the way in showing urgent or groundbreaking new art; instead, this role is played by a handful of energetic, independent art centers, complemented by museums, such as the Walker Art Center, that present world-class exhibitions of modern, contemporary and experimental work.
On the east side of the river, near the shops and restaurants of the St. Anthony Main waterfront district, the Soap Factory is an alternative-space venue that serves as a launching pad for emerging talents in the visual and design arts. Housed in the former—and still rather “raw”—National Purity Soap Company building, the non-profit organization also presents performances, films and other events. Overpriced New York used to boast outfits like this by the score; now, cities like Minneapolis, with numerous historic structures just waiting to be adapted and revived, are the places to go to find such spunky, artist-driven institutions.
Another is the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in the Open Book Building, across the river and downtown, on wide Washington Avenue South, near the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus. In addition to the MCBA’s well-equipped, dual-purpose classroom/studios for printing and binding, the building houses the Loft Literary Center, Milkweed Editions (a publishing company) and a superb book-arts gift shop, with an array of handcrafted or uniquely printed albums, notebooks and cards. Across the river, Midway Contemporary Art (despite its name and slick, white-box looks, it’s a non-profit organization, not a commercial gallery) presents an international program of exhibitions. Midway has shown works by such postmodernist icons as Belgium’s Marcel Broodthaers (1924–76) and rising stars like Gareth James, a British artist who teaches at Columbia University in New York.
Just south of downtown, Franklin Art Works, on East Franklin Avenue, is another noteworthy alternative space. It presents exhibitions and performing-arts events featuring locally and nationally recognized artists, like up-and-comer Shinique Smith, who is known for making mixed-media paintings and mysterious bundles of clothing and found objects. Housed in a former silent-movie cinema, Franklin Art Works has undergone a renovation that has revealed such architectural details as the main auditorium’s original proscenium and a 29-foot-long stained-glass window. The organization has been chosen by the Andy Warhol Foundation to receive a comprehensive aid package through its Warhol Initiative aimed at independent arts centers.A bit further south, cozy coffee shops and easygoing eateries abound in the neighborhood bordered to the west by Hennepin Avenue South and, to the east, by the side-by-side Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Here, gathering spots like the Sunny Side Up Café on South Lyndale Avenue offer a relaxed perch for people-watching. Across the street, Soo Visual Arts Center, in a storefront space, hosts exhibitions of emerging artists’ works—which are usually for sale—and a shop stocked with affordable, original pieces and multiples. (Look for artist Noah Harmon’s goofy-clever, ink-on-paper drawings.) Next door, fans of Japanese anime-inspired toys and character figurines should check out ROBOTlove, a shop that also sells artworks created by some of the same artists who design those colorful collectibles. Among them: prints of computer-based drawings by Kozyndan, the moniker of a dynamic husband-and-wife, Japanese-and-American artist duo.
A few blocks down South Lyndale, Intermedia Arts, another independent venue, presents exhibitions, performances and other events; a recent group show focused on graffiti art by female artists including the legendary Lady Pink. In fact, the Intermedia Arts building is covered in an ever-changing display of graffiti murals. Several blocks to the northeast, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts houses excellent Asian art collections, among others—its Ming dynasty reception hall and other period rooms are must-sees—and boasts a new wing designed by architect Michael Graves (here working at a muted pitch). A short drive to the south, Weinstein Gallery, a top-class commercial venue, shows photographs by Mary Ellen Mark, Lynn Davis and Robert Polidori, paintings and sculpture by Nicolas Africano, and notable works by other blue-chip artists.
Back uptown, architecture buffs should take in the Frank Gehry–designed shiny, wildly shaped Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus, which opened in 1993. Its holdings include American modernist gems like Charles Biederman’s abstract painting “Untitled, New York” (1935) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s sumptuous “Oriental Poppies” (1927), plus ceramics and Korean furniture. Gehry will create the museum’s proposed expansion, too.
On the river’s west bank, the new Guthrie Theater, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is a dark-blue, glowing-at-night jewel of sleek styling that blends in seamlessly with its riverfront neighbors—sturdy, monumental buildings from the city’s industrial past that have been renovated as loft residences, restaurants and, just a few steps away, as the Mill City Museum, an institution devoted to the history of the local flour-milling business and its impact on Minneapolis. On the Guthrie’s ground floor, executive chef Lenny Russo’s menu at Cue, a glistening restaurant with a dramatic, open-view kitchen befitting a theater, emphasizes locally and regionally produced ingredients.
Nearby, the new, central branch of the Minneapolis Public Library, an elegant structure with a dramatic canopy roof that juts out over its entrances on Hennepin Avenue on one side and Nicollet Mall on the other, was designed by architect Cesar Pelli. One of its most distinctive, if not exactly obvious features: an eco-friendly roof planted with sun- and drought-resistant plants.
Finally, southwest of the library, also on Hennepin, the Walker Art Center is one of the most lustrous jewels in the city’s crown of cultural and educational institutions. With a new section designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, which opened in April 2005, the Walker houses one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary art anywhere. In it, no piece merely holds a place for a particular, well-known artist; instead, such works as paintings by Japan’s postwar Gutai abstractionists, Franz Kline’s little black-and-white canvas “The Chair” (1950) or Anselm Kiefer’s mixed-media tableau, “Die Ordnung der Engel (The Hierarchy of Angels)” (1985–87), are resonant emblems of the artists whose ideas and experiments they represent. The Walker oversees the diverse selection of modern and contemporary works in the popular Minneapolis Sculpture Garden across the street; its icon is Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s “Spoonbridge and Cherry” (1985–88), a gigantic sculpture that meets its match in a look-alike dessert on the museum restaurant’s menu. For aesthetes on a pilgrimage to this inviting riverside city, that chocolaty confection may be just the treat with which to begin a tour—or a well-deserved reward at the end of a journey of diversion and discovery in the pursuit of art.
New York correspondent Edward M. Gomez writes frequently about U.S. regional museums.
SOURCES
Franklin Art Works
612.872.7494 franklinartworks.org
Guthrie Theater
612.377.2224 guthrietheater.org
Intermedia Arts
612.871.4444 intermediaarts.org
Midway Contemporary Art
612.605.4504 midwayart.org
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
612.870.3131 artsmia.org
Minneapolis Public Library
612.630.6000 mpls.lib.mn.us/central.asp
Minnesota Center for Book Arts
612.215.2520 mnbookarts.org
ROBOTlove
612.871.9393 robotlove.biz
Soo Visual Arts Center
612.871.2263 soovac.org
The Soap Factory
612.623.9176 soapfactory.org
Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
612.375.7600 walkerart.org
Weinstein Gallery
612.822.1722 weinstein-gallery.com
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota
612.625.9494 weisman.umn.edu