The central sculpture is an iconic work by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, which was commissioned for this location. It is a great sculpture because it is both strange and familiar and suggests all sorts of symbolism; it also is a magnet for little kids, who cluster around the water's edge pointing at the tiny stream of water emitting from the stem.
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| Oldenburg and van Bruggen Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1988 |
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| The Sculpture Park is the cherry on the sundae |
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| Mark di Suvero, b. 1933 Arikidea, 1982 |
Another of di Suvero's sculptures tempts them to do some climbing, though a nearby sign prohibits this.
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| Mark di Suvero, b. 1933 Moleculte, 1983 |
A concrete block work by Sol LeWitt looks like it was designed for hide and seek.
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| Sol LeWitt, 1928-2007 X with Columns, 1996 |
This sculpture by Charles Ginnever evokes a sea monster.
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| Charles Ginnever, b. 1931 Nautilus, 1976 |
Jackie Ferrara builds works that are intended as viewpoints, stages, and seating.
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| Jackie Ferrara, b. 1929 Belvedere, 1988 |
Other sculptures also functioned as seating. Just inside the entrance is a square arrangement of 28 white granite benches by Jenny Holzer that are engraved with aphorisms. Philip Larson did a bench with the base in the form of crystals. There were two sculptures by Scott Burton, who specialized in benches.
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| Scott Burton, 1939-1989 Seat-Leg Table, 1986 |
An innovative work by Dan Graham combines hedges with two-way mirrors to form a labyrinth. Mirrors always tempt me to do a selfie.
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| Dan Graham, b. 1942 Two-Way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth, 1996 |
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| Selfie with two-way mirror |
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| Fritz Haeg, b. 1969 Foraging Circle, 2013 In the background is Grossman Memorial Arbor, 1988 |
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| Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, 1988 Designed by Siah Armajani, b. 1939 |
We spent a long morning in the sculpture garden, then went across an access road to the Walker Art Center to have lunch in their Gather Restaurant. The restaurant is located in the new wing of the art center, which was designed by Herzog and de Meuron, who also designed the de Young Museum in San Francisco, one of our "home" museums. We enjoyed the angled space and windows. Dan's Chinese chicken salad was superior; my salad of asparagus and haricot verts (green beans) was also quite good. From the restaurant I walked out onto a balcony that gave a good view of the construction project that was creating the background noise; the tile is being replaced on the original building, which was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.
The Walker's collection seemed pretty thin to us; not much Art, as we know it; narry a sign of painting or drawing or sculpting. It was mainly photographs in different formats or displayed in constructed settings. The intent seemed to be documenting community activities. For instance, some family divided their large yard into several carefully planned gardens with help of all their neighbors and photographed the process. That's nice. There were photos of Minneapolis buildings being destroyed. That's that. There was a giant phony piece of bling with CNN as a logo, like a cross. That's cute.
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| Edgar Heap of Birds, b. 1954 Telling Many Magpies, 1989 |
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| Thomas Hirschhorn, b. 1957 Necklace, CNN, 2002 |
We returned to the sculpture garden to see what we had missed. By then the light was more mellow and it was a little cooler. A breeze came up and I got fascinated with trying to make a movie of wind chimes hanging in a line of trees, trying to capture the elusive sound and the flickering look of the slender chimes hiding among the leaves; this piece was by Pierre Huyghe, b. 1962. I also spent awhile pondering an "artist-designed" miniature golf course; it sort of rubbed me the wrong way, but it was very popular with young people. I ran into a couple of very cute teens who had thought up a novel way to meet people.
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| You get what you pay for |
Here we had a rare mishap: we got separated. This is a constant danger and it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often. Dan wanted to take pictures of the bridge, but we started out walking over the bridge in order to see the lock, the waterfall and the river. He meant to walk only a short way and then go down to a road below where he could take photos, but somehow I couldn't quit looking at the river; I must have walked on while he was taking a picture. It's a long bridge, and views of the river are interesting both ways. At one place you can see some remains of an abandoned sawmill, and the current makes a twist and turn. About 2/3 of the way across, the sun was burning on my back like a laser beam; I was so overheated that I knew I couldn't make it all they way back. I could see there was a shady park on the other side and I needed to sit in the cool breeze for awhile before I tackled the return trip. At one point I could actually hear Dan shouting my name, but I couldn't see him. I was just settling into a shady spot, when he came up shouting at me; he was frightened and frustrated. I shouted back for awhile, then we sat in the shade, drank some water and enjoyed the breeze. The little park was a wonderful island of repose in this intense city. By the time we walked back, there was more breeze on the river and I made it just fine.
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| I didn't take any still photos of the bridge |
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| View from the bridge of abandoned mills that have been repurposed for housing and a museum |
We ate at the hotel and Dan did a load of wash. I charged the cell phones, and we practiced using them to call each other.
