In summer 1970 I was invited by the Minnesota State Arts Council to participate in a show titled "9 Artists/9 Spaces". Richard Koshalek and Martin Friedman of the Walker Art Center were the inviters. The event was a non-event but has come back to haunt me as I just received a call from Martin Friedman asking about it (41 years later) and my drawing of it with questions sent by present Walker curator Bartholomew Ryan. Ryan is investigating the work in connection with a show they are doing with artist Goshka Macuga.
Drawing for billboard.
The billboard happened, but no one ever saw it. Peggy Weil wrote about the piece on her website:
"William Wegman proposed a billboard with an image of Minneapolis’s iconic skyscraper, The Foshay Tower, on its side. It was a straightforward depiction, painted from a black and white photo of the building - merely horizontal rather than vertical. It went up on opening night. In the middle of the night. University officials had neglected to inform University Police and, the police, edgy from recent bomb activity in St. Paul, contacted the FBI. The FBI showed up at Koshelek’s office the next morning to inform him that they’d read it as a bomb threat and dismantled it. "
I never saw the piece and probably would not have been pleased with the translation from photo to paint. My thinking was to turn a vertical object into a horizontal one. Mies van der Rohe versus Frank LLoyd Wright. My title "What Goes Up Must Come Down " was kinda dumb and I'm sure led to its demise. What Will Be, Will Be.
-- WW
And yet you turns things on their ear(s) these days, yes?
Posted by: James | 04/08/2011 at 01:43 PM