We wrap up Season 2 by taking a look at Minneapolis’ most distinctive architectural feature, the network of bridges connecting the buildings of downtown. With each link being different, it’s an accidental experiment of what works and doesn’t work in architecture. Also: news!
Continue reading “Ep. 2.9 The Skyway System”Ep. 2.8 Everything That Needs to Be Said About US Bank Stadium
We’ve talked about good buildings. Why not check in on a bad one?
Ep. 2.7: Peavey Plaza, Parks, and Brutalism
Architecture isn’t just about buildings- it’s also about parks, places that are notably building-free. Peavey Plaza is a great park, and also a great exemplar of Brutalism, a form that sounds a lot scarier than it really is.
Continue reading “Ep. 2.7: Peavey Plaza, Parks, and Brutalism”Ep. 2.6: More Semiotics- Postmodern Buildings in Gothic Drag
More gamboling in the lush fields of semiotics as we look at why the University of St. Thomas worked hard to make its downtown Minneapolis buildings, designed around the year 2000, look like parts of them came from the Middle Ages.
Continue reading “Ep. 2.6: More Semiotics- Postmodern Buildings in Gothic Drag”Ep. 2.5 Semiotics and the Hidden Meanings of the Guthrie Theater
Jean Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater plays a complicated double game with its appearance, lying to you and then telling the truth about what’s really going on inside. This means we need to work up the guts to talk semiotics.
Continue reading “Ep. 2.5 Semiotics and the Hidden Meanings of the Guthrie Theater”Ep. 2.4 Wells Fargo Center and Postmodernism
Wells Fargo Center looks like another Art Deco building (in more ways then one- it looks like another specific Art Deco building), but that’s not quite accurate. It’s time to get serious about this postmodernism thing.
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Continue reading “Ep. 2.4 Wells Fargo Center and Postmodernism”Ep. 2.3: IDS Center and Modernism
Some geometric glass buildings are really boring. Phillip Johnson’s IDS Center isn’t one of them, though! It’s a great example of modernism done well. But what’s modernism, anyway?
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Continue reading “Ep. 2.3: IDS Center and Modernism”Ep. 2.2: The Foshay Tower, Art Deco, and Gozer the Destroyer
The Foshay Tower is a building everyone in Minneapolis seems to love. But why? And if it’s an Art Deco masterpiece, what does that mean?
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Continue reading “Ep. 2.2: The Foshay Tower, Art Deco, and Gozer the Destroyer”Ep 2.1: Architecture in General and of the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Particular
Welcome back to Artpal! Season 2, using buildings around downtown Minneapolis to talk about architecture, kicks off with a look at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as a building. But first, there’s some news about the show itself.
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Continue reading “Ep 2.1: Architecture in General and of the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Particular”Test!
This is Keith running a test on site functionality. If you see this somewhere, ignore it! Although this is a harbinger of things to come
Ep. 1.9: Art Is All Around
Keith wraps up the first season by pointing out that even though the Minneapolis Institute of Art is full of great works, one of its best artistic experiences involves looking out a window.
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Ep. 1.8: Alexa Horochowski, a Bunch of Garbage, and Centuries of Systematic Sexism
Alexa Horochowski’s Vortex Drawing 17 (2017.80.6) is a striking work of art that alludes to the problem of garbage in the oceans. The difficulty of finding a lot of other works by women is an example of a different type of garbage.
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Ep. 1.7: Honbori and Folwell, Catching You by Surprise
Yuji Honbori’s Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (2012.68.1a,b) and Susan Folwell’s Why Does He Call Me Caitlyn? (2016.5.13) are a couple of works of art that punch back at the walls of the arbitrary boxes the art world would traditionally put them in.
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Ep. 1.6: The Only Question About George Morrison Is What Kind of Great Artist He Is
George Morrison wanted to be known as “a painter who happened to be an Indian.” But people always talk about him in the context of his ethnicity, even if it’s to say that he didn’t want to be talked about that way. It’s fraught. At any rate, his Collage IX: Landscape (75.24) is a pretty incredible thing to experience in a gallery.
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Ep 1.5: Outsider Art: Threat or Menace?
William Howard and William Edmondson were certainly not insiders to the art world. Does that make their works—a writing desk (2012.11) and a sculpture of a ram (2013.56)—pieces of outsider art, though? Is “outsider art” a dangerous, loaded concept? Help! Don’t worry, Keith is here to help.
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Ep 1.4: Kehinde Wiley and Georgia O’Keeffe Off the Beaten Track
When artists have a distinctive style, it can be jarring to look at works of theirs that come across a little differently. Keith digs into a couple of MIA pieces– Kehinde Wiley’s Santos Dumont- The Father of Aviation II (MIA accession no. 2010.99) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s City Night (80.28)–that diverge from what we usually expect from these artists.
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Ep 1.3: Morris Kantor, His Mother, and an Art Collector
Morris Kantor painted one hell of a portrait of his mother in 1922 (MIA accession number L2014.234.53), and it’s a good example of an approach to portraiture that can really tell a story. But it’s *also* a good entryway to talk about the relationship between museums and collectors.
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Ep 1.2: Chuck Close- Big Faces, Big Baggage
Keith digs into the 1969 painting Frank by Chuck Close, MIA accession number 69.137. It’s a striking work by an important American artist who, unfortunately, has been in the news lately for troubling reasons. This means it’s time for the always-fun game of “should/can I separate the art from the artist?”
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Ep 1.1: What’s Up With This?
Welcome to Artpal, both the podcast in general and Season 1 in particular. Host Keith Pille lays out some background and introduces the first season, which will act as a sort of guerrilla audioguide to a selection of works on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
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