Something bold, something new: MIA goes contemporary

Recession be damned, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts has raised an unprecedented $5 million in cash and art this year to jump-start a new collection of contemporary art.

Spearheaded by Eric Dayton, who at age 30 is the MIA's youngest board member, and curator Elizabeth Armstrong, the eight-month campaign got about 30 donors to expand the tradition-minded museum into a field that it had only dabbled in -- and one that appeals to younger visitors and donors.

The board formally accepted the art at its monthly meeting Tuesday afternoon.

While it's important to the museum's future, the move to contemporary art also sets up a perceived conflict with Walker Art Center, the Twin Cities' bastion of modernism.

The 25 artworks, mostly created since 1980, were priced between $10,000 and $750,000, said Armstrong. Collectors donated some pieces, and the museum bought others from artists or galleries. They range from a room-sized sculpture by Iranian-born, Minneapolis-based Siah Armajani to a wall-sized digital projection of chrysanthemums by American artist Jennifer Steinkamp and a white marble Ming dynasty-style chair by Ai Weiwei, a Chinese-born artist who is a frequent critic of his homeland's government.

The contribution is the largest that a group of donors has made to a single department in recent years. Dayton's grandfather, Bruce Dayton, and his wife, Ruth, gave the museum millions for Chinese art during the 1990s, but it is unusual for a variety of unrelated people to chip in to support a new institutional venture.

Institute director Kaywin Feldman attributed the campaign's success to the way Armstrong, who joined the museum's staff in 2008, has mingled modern with traditional art and emphasized the continuity of cultures.

Earlier this year Armstrong borrowed art dating from the 1960s to the present from artists, collectors and galleries around the world. She temporarily mixed some pieces into the museum's collection and placed others in "Until Now," a special spring exhibit.

Previously, the museum limited its holdings primarily to paintings, sculpture and other objects made before 1945, leaving post-World War II art to Walker Art Center. Like many traditional institutions, however, it has had to reevaluate that policy.

"If you're going to be an encyclopedic museum, you can't stop at 1990 or 1960," said Diane Lilly, chairman of the museum's board of directors. "We had a major effort to improve and expand our facilities recently, and once we completed the building plan, the next step was to focus on the collection."

No conflict with Walker

The additions appear to set the institute on a collision course with the Walker, but museum officials insist that is not the case. Contemporary art is such a wide-open field that both institutions can acquire it without fear of duplication, they say, and in any case the MIA's focus differs significantly from the Walker's.

The primary difference is that the Walker emphasizes new and experimental work, while the institute seeks to update traditional themes and subjects in its collection. A sculptural collage by Willie Cole illustrates the point. The sculpture looks like a traditional African carving of a mother and child, but it is made of women's high-heeled shoes that have been recycled into a poignant statement about motherhood.

Other additions introduce the multicultural themes into galleries once dominated by Euro-American imagery. Among them are a photo by Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura in which he disguises himself as the iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. In a huge color photo, the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare reimagines a famous etching by the 18th century Spanish painter Francisco Goya, and a monumental baroque-style painting by Kehinde Wiley depicts two black youths sprawled on a mountaintop.

"The contemporary collection has attracted new audiences along with new patrons," said Feldman. "And it's helping us to encourage visitors to see the rest of the collection again."

Much of the art is now in storage but will be moved into the galleries during the next few months.