Minneapolis Sculpture Garden art to be relocated during $10M renovation

Frank Gehyr's "Glass Fish" sculpture in the Cowles Conservatory at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden; image provided by Walker Art Center

Art from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden will be stored or shown at other Twin Cities museums and parks during the garden's $10 million renovation starting in June 2015.

Five of the garden's 40 sculptures, all owned by Walker Art Center, will be loaned to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, or the Gold Medal Park adjacent to theGuthrie Theater near the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. The remainder will be placed in storage during the 18 month renovation.

Three of the loaned sculptures will be transplanted to Gold Medal Park:

1) Brower Hatcher's "Prophecy of the Ancients (1988)," a circle of pillars surmounted by a domed mesh- canopy studded with astrological symbols and glyphs; 2) Mark di Suvero's "Molecule (1977-83)," a wide-legged steel tripod painted bright red; 3) Tony Cragg's "Ordovician Pore (1989)" consisting of metal funnels, rough balls and a bent droplet cascading over the edge of a stone base.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts will take in Jacques Lipchitz's "Prometheus Strangling the Vulture II (1944/1953), and the Weisman Art Museum will house Frank Gehry's "Standing Glass Fish (1986)."

The Gehry sculpture, which is presently the centerpiece of the Sculpture Garden's Cowles Conservatory and palm house, is expected to be displayed inside the Weisman whose building was designed by the Los Angeles architect.

The Minnesota legislature has approved $8.5 million to renovate and upgrade the 11 acre garden's infrastructure including irrigation, drainage, walkways, retaining walls and other features. The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization chipped in an additional up to $1.5 million for storm-water-management-systems on the site.