Sunday at the Weisman -- WPA Art of Minnesota

For a Sunday jaunt, I took a short trip over to the Weisman Museum on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. If you're not from here or you've never been to the campus, the Weisman is an undulating, stainless-steel clad building designed by Frank Gehry in the early 1990s. Some people think it's the ugliest building on earth, but I like it.

Until the Weisman was built, the University's art collection and gallery space were stuck on the third floor of Northrop Auditorium in an un-air-conditioned space that few people every visited. It was the poor step-child of the huge institution, sitting on an enormous pile of wonderful artwork. When the Weisman opened, the art gallery and its collection were instantly transformed into a glittering Cinderella in one of the most visible locations possible.


Their current exhibit showcases about a hundred pieces from the collection. All of the works were created by artists employed by the U.S. government during the Depression under the Works Progress Administration or Farm Security Administration. Basically, the deal was that taxpayer-supported museums could buy the artworks for the cost of the materials used to make them. The art is actually owned by the people of the United States (as represented by the federal government), but the museums hold them in perpetuity.

There are a lot of wonderful pieces in the show, including photographs by the biggest names of the time (Dorthea Lange, Edward Weston, Ben Shahn) and some really great abstract paintings, but the works that caught my attention the most were the very local paintings of the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.

Two were of the same bridge over the railroad tracks in Dinkytown, just north of the campus:


Above: Dewey Albinson, University Bridge, oil on canvas, 1934.


Above, the same bridge at about the same time but from a different angle and by a different artist: Elof Wedin, Fourteenth Avenue, oil on canvas, 1934.

I'm not totally sure what location is shown in this next image. When I saw it, I thought it was the 10th Avenue Bridge (the one that is right next to the collapsed 35W bridge), but now I'm not so sure. While the 10th Avenue bridge was built in 1929, the bridge in this picture looks like it's made of metal, while the 10th Avenue bridge is clad in concrete.

But it is reminiscent of the way the 10th Avenue bridge runs high above the river flats, which to this day are inhabited by University buildings that live in the bridge's shadow.


Above: Glen Ranney, Twin City Sewage Station, oil on fabric, 1936.

There were several other paintings in the show of specific buildings on the Minneapolis campus, and one that depicted the rolling hills of the St. Paul campus with no buildings at all, except a barn in the background.

While I was expecting to look at some beautiful paintings today, I wasn't expecting to see such locally inspired work. It was a welcome addition to the show.