Walker Art Center celebrates 75 years with a look at its iconic works

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is turning 75. The museum is marking the anniversary with "Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections," a new exhibition opening Thursday.

MPR News' Tom Crann spoke with director Olga Viso and former Walker curator Joan Rothfuss, to talk about the Walker's history.

Of the 13,000 pieces in the Walker's permanent collection of visual arts, here are three of the most iconic:

"Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses)," by Franz Marc is considered the first acquisition by the Walker Art Center.

Painted in 1911, the Walker family bought the piece in 1942, two years after the creation of the Walker Art Center as we know it today. T.B. Walker's collection was mostly antiquities, historical artifacts and 19th century paintings — so the purchase of this modern artwork was quite a departure.

The work had been banned by the Nazi government in Germany, so not only did this piece symbolize a step forward for the institution, it started a conversation about artistic freedom and censorship.

"Big Self-Portrait" by Chuck Close was the first piece Close ever sold and symbolizes the years Martin Friedman was director of the Walker, when he transformed the institution into what Ruthfuss calls an "artist-centric Center."

Close created the work by taking a photograph of himself and putting a grid over it. He then transferred the grid onto the large-scale canvas and painted each square separately.

Lost Forty by Goshka Macuga is a recent acquisition by the Walker. Macuga spent a year working with the Walker Art Center and this tapestry reflects her time there. Olga Viso calls it an "epic historical narrative."

It contains images from the Art Center's past (founder T.B. Walker) and present (Viso), historical images and figures — and even Macuga herself. It acknowledges, as Viso put it, that artists, curators, directors, and the public all come together to create the Walker Art Center.