Weekend Arts Roundup: Newsy, Edgy Art
March 26, 2015
MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins Jill Riley and Sean McPherson (in for Steve Seel) to talk about arts items that are in the news or on the edge — or a little bit of both.
Washington in Winona — Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is iconic, and it turns out there were three versions of it: The first was ultimately destroyed in World War II; the second was a 20-foot-wide canvas, the other on a five-foot-wide canvas (Leutze painted the last two simultaneously). Of the remaining paintings, the larger one is the centerpiece of the American collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the other hung in the White House for 30 years. Now, that third painting belongs to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. Located on the banks of the Mississippi River, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum specializes in art that features water, so Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is a fitting addition to the collection. (Read Marianne's feature story about this painting and its move to Winona.)
Ron Athey — In 1994, GLBT performance artist Ron Athey did a performance called "Four Scenes in a Harsh Life." Staged at Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis, the show sparked outrage because it involved Athey cutting himself, and Athey was HIV positive. There were people in the audience who were concerned, and there were people who were not in the audience who found out about it and became very concerned. That show and the tumult from it is often attributed as being part of the reasoning the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) got its budget slashed and a lot of art became more conservative as a result. To mark the anniversary, Athey is back in town to give a presentation the Walker Art Center, looking back on his 1994 show and its aftermath. In addition to that, Patrick's Cabaret is hosting a Culture Wars Cabaret featuring some of the most edgy GLBT performers in town, in the spirit of Athey's "Four Scenes in a Harsh Life."
Marianne Combs joins The Current's Morning Show for the Weekend Arts Roundup every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Read all the latest arts news from MPR News.