Walker Art Center Invites Audience to Select Artworks for Exhibition

Written by Roger Finch Tuesday, 20 July 2010 20:18

MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center’s audience will share the spotlight with the museum’s curators when they jointly select the artworks for the upcoming exhibition 50/50: Audience and Experts Curate the Paper Collection. Visit the kiosk in Benches & Binoculars or vote online at www.walkerart.org/5050. A mobile version of the Web site will also be available. Voting runs August 1–September 15. Several lucky voters will be selected at random for a behind-the-scenes tour of the exhibition with the curator. 50/50 will be on view December 16, 2010–July 17, 2011.

Drawing from an expansive trove of objects made with pencil, marker, pen and ink as well as watercolor and gouache, the exhibition, drawn from the Walker’s collection, will include highlights of post-1960s art (in some cases, even earlier), from conceptual works to narrative figuration.

Though the final checklist will not be known until visitors and curators alike have made their selections, 50/50 is expected to reveal the vital role of drawing in artists’ works and imaginations—as sketches, musings, and finished works. Ranging in scale from the intimate to the monolithic, the works will hang in a similar fashion to the salon style Benches & Binoculars, in which works fill the walls for ample viewing, exposing in their variety a range of time periods, styles, and material applications. Actual layout will be dictated by the percentage of allocated space: each grouping, from “expert” and “audience,” will occupy 50% of the gallery wall.

Does Pablo Picasso have more of a chance than Nicholas Krushenick? Elizabeth Peyton more than Barbara Neustadt? The Walker’s audience is invited to decide.