Weisman Art Museum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 1993, the museum moved to its current building, designed by the Canadian-born American architect

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

, and renamed in honor of art collector and philanthropist Frederick R. Weisman. Widely known as a "modern art museum," its 20,000+ acquisitions include large collections of traditional Korean furniture and modern American Art, including collections of work by Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer, Charles Biederman.

Frederick Rand Weisman

Frederick Rand Weisman (April 27, 1912 – September 11, 1994) was a Minneapolis native who became well known as an art collector in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In 1982 Weisman purchased an estate in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles that would serve as a showcase for his personal collection of 20th-century art. When he opened the art collection to the public, he wanted to share the experience of ''living'' with art, rather than the usual, more formal protocol of seeing art in a gallery or museum. The estate remains the home of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation to this day. The Weisman Foundation estate is a two-story Mediterranean Revival house designed in the late 1920s by Los Angeles architect Gordon B. Kaufmann. The Weisman home exhibits the fine craftsmanship characteristic of the period, including custom decorative treatments on the walls and ceilings. Today the foundation estate, annex, and surrounding gardens are made accessible to the public by appointment only. Another museum bearing Weisman's name, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, is located on the campus of

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...

Museum building

The current museum building was designed by world-renowned architect

with MSR Design as architect of record and completed in November 1993. It is one of the major landmarks on the

campus, situated on a bluff overlooking the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

at the east end of the Washington Avenue Bridge. The abstract structure is considered highly significant because it was built prior to the widespread use of

computer aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

in architecture. The building presents two faces, depending on which side it is viewed from. To the south and east, it presents a brick facade that blends with the historic buildings along Northrop Mall. To the north and west, it is an abstraction of a fish and waterfall in curving and angular brushed steel sheets. The stainless steel skin was fabricated and installed by the A. Zahner Company, a frequent collaborator with Gehry's office. The museum received a major addition, also designed by Frank Gehry, in 2011. HGA Architects and Engineers served as local consultants for the project.

Gallery

File:Weisman-Art-Museum-2006-11-05.jpg, A closeup of the

-designed building File:Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (15188332393).jpg, Main entrance File:Maurer, Standing Female Nude.jpg, Alfred Maurer's ''Standing Female Nude'' (1927-1928) is part of the museum's collection File:Chicken Painting.jpg, Doug Argue, ''Untitled'', 1994 File:Adelard the Drowned, Master of the 'Phantom' by Marsden Hartley.jpg, ''Adelard the Drowned, Master of the "Phantom"'', Marsden Hartley, c. 1938-1939 File:Excavation Penn Station Ernest Lawson 1906.jpeg, ''Excavation - Penn Station'', Ernest Lawson, 1906

References

External links

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Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum records
University Archives, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities {{authority control Frank Gehry buildings Museums in Minneapolis Art museums and galleries in Minnesota University museums in Minnesota Modern art museums in the United States Contemporary crafts museums in the United States University of Minnesota Art museums and galleries established in 1993 Deconstructivism Expressionist architecture Postmodern architecture in Minnesota Art museums and galleries established in 1934 1934 establishments in Minnesota

Frederick Rand Weisman

Museum building

Gallery

See also

References

External links