Walker Art Center

I rarely wander to the Walker Art Center. I'm much closer to the MIA and the MIA's perpetual free-ness tends to win out over the Walker when I'm itching for visual inspiration.  But I'm trying to take advantage of the Walker's free first Saturdays more often and the promise of jewelry artists selling pretty things this Saturday was the added oomph I needed to get me there.

My knowledge of art largely hits a wall around the 1940s or so. Before that, I'm likely to stumble upon pieces, movements, and artists I recognize. There's a familiarity with Impressionism, Dadaism, Cubism that lends itself to comfort, largely because these are the movements I remember from my liberal arts education. After WWII, however, I'm in a maze of stimuli that require constant reference to the explanations on the wall.  This doesn't bother me.  In fact, it's probably why I find modern art infinitely more fascinating than prior periods.  The ingenuity and irreverence, not to mention the scope and sheer size of some works, tends to stop me in my tracks.  There are pieces that resonate immediately, and pieces that even upon reading the artist's intent, I still struggle to "get" on any level. But that's what makes the wandering worthwhile. Inspiration mixed with confusion is not a bad state of being for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

The Walker is free the first Saturday of the month and Thursday evenings. Take a wander!

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