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Visual Arts
By Walker Art Center

How Do You Care for an Artwork that Has No Physical Form? A Conversation on Media and Time-Based Works in the Walker’s Collections

How do museums collect and care for works of art that lack traditional physical forms, like VR, video, and works made of light? Joe King, the director of Collections and Exhibition Management at the Walker, discusses the unique and joyful challenges registrars have in the preservation and presentation of digital and durational artworks.

A group of adults sit and stand amongst shelfes of books in a library and smile while looking at the viewer.
Walker News
By Walker Art Center

The Other Walker Library

Did you know that the Walker Art Center has a library and archive that is free and open to the public? The amazing team of librarians, archivists, and dedicated volunteers who steward this treasure trove share their favorite items found in the Walker’s library.

A man and a woman stand in front of a large public sculpture of a cherry sitting on the tip of a spoon.
Walker News
By Siri Engberg, Senior Curator, Visual Arts

Remembering Claes Oldenburg

Chuck Close, an artist who had a long history with the Walker Art Center, passed away this week at the age of 81. Considered one of contemporary art’s most influential figurative painters, Close was committed to rigorous experimentation within his rigidly defined practice, remaining a vital presence through his decades-long career by focusing exclusively on portraiture.

Man sitting on stool in front of large portrait of man wearing glasses with cigarette in mouth

Remembering Chuck Close

Chuck Close, an artist who had a long history with the Walker Art Center, passed away this week at the age of 81. Considered one of contemporary art’s most influential figurative painters, Close was committed to rigorous experimentation within his rigidly defined practice, remaining a vital presence through his decades-long career by focusing exclusively on portraiture.

View of the Walker Art Center from Vineland Avenue

Letter to the Walker Community

Several weeks ago, a group of Walker Art Center employees informed us of their intention to organize a union for Walker staff. From the outset of this process, the Walker has affirmed the right of employees to unionize and indicated a willingness to working with union leadership should a majority of the staff indicate an interest in being represented by a union.

Walker Response to COVID-19

The Walker Art Center is taking every precaution for the safety and care of all visitors, staff, and artists. To proactively protect the entire community, the museum will remain temporarily closed. We hope to resume our activities and welcome you back soon.

1982 black and white image of artists wearing white and carrying long sticks, performing "Flying"

Living Collections Catalogue Vol. III: Collaborative Artistic Practices in the United States, 1960s–1980s

Just launched, the third volume of the Walker’s Living Collections Catalogue traces a rich period of artistic experimentation with forms of radical collectivity, aesthetic production, and political mobilization. Presenting newly commissioned texts and surfacing unique archival materials, the publication explores the work of artists active in the United States between the 1960s and the 1980s—including Asco, Haus-Rucker-Co, Studio Z, Grand Union, and Mabou Mines—whose practices were highly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and often aligned with social movements.

How the Walker Art Center Acquired Every Print Jasper Johns Ever Made

In 1987, a New York gallery contacted the Walker with an extraordinary offer: an opportunity to purchase 317 prints by Jasper Johns—everything the artist had produced up to that point. No public institution in the world owned a complete collection of graphic work by Johns—who, it turns out, was the unnamed seller behind the collection. As we open An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018, curator Joan Rothfuss looks at this distinctive body of work by an American icon.  

This Just In: New Acquisitions Focus on Emerging Artists, the Interdisciplinary

The Walker’s world-renowned collections feature diverse artists whose works continually question the possibilities of art. Over the course of the last 15 months, the newest additions—by artists from Carolee Schneemann, Stan VanDerBeek, and Christian Marclay to Trisha Baga, Tetsuya Yamada, and Martine Syms—were guided by a strong focus on two key areas: interdisciplinary practices and collecting works by emerging artists.

The Best of Walker Reader 2019

“Where did we see innovation in how we approach online discourse about art today? Where were we brave, or creative, or unexpected in our publishing? What just felt right?” Walker Reader’s editor shares the magazine’s top moments of 2019—from a reconsideration of a 1940 Edward Hopper masterpiece to incisive discussion of topics from museum neutrality to queer design pedagogy to Indigenous fashion.

Two dancers in a white gallery. In the foreground, a male dancer in a gray tank top and elbow pads is running in place. In the background, a female dancer stands with her upper back arched. On the right side of the frame, there is a single speaker on a stand.

Open Casting Call: The Paradox of Stillness

The Walker Art Center is seeking actors, dancers, musicians, and members of the public to activate 10 artworks testing the boundaries between stillness and aliveness as part of the 2020 exhibition The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance.