Recent Acquisitions On Display at MMAM
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM) exhibits great art inspired by water from its permanent collection and from long and short-term loans from private collectors, other museums, commercial galleries, traveling exhibition services, and living artists. Recently, six works were added to the Museum’s collection and a four are now on display. Last month, the Museum’s Collection Committee reviewed dozens of donation offers of artworks during a virtual Zoom meeting and approved five photographs and one oil painting to be added to the Museum’s permanent collection. All but one of the works were part of recent exhibitions. The approved works are photographs generously donated by Seth Casteel and Christy Lee Rogers, as well as an anonymous donation of a Thomas Paquette oil painting. Additionally, Minneapolis photographer Stuart Klipper donated a large panoramic photograph of the Mississippi River.
With the addition of these new works, and the removal of the Family Reading Area due to Covid-19 restrictions, Assistant Curator of Education & Exhibitions, Dave Casey and I, took this opportunity to hang and move some of the new and recent acquisitions to the collection. Now on display are works by Thomas Paquette, Christy Lee Rogers, Adam Turman, and Anna Metcalfe.
Alma’s Buena Vista (2017) by Thomas Paquette (American b. 1958) oil on linen.
Thomas Paquette’s Alma’s Buena Vista (2017) served as the title piece for the 2018 MMAM exhibition America’s River Re-Explored, Paintings of the Mississippi from Source to Gulf. Paquette spent three years travelling and painting the entire length of the River and this piece offers a grand view from the bluffs looking over Alma, Wisconsin, 25 miles upstream from Winona. He explains “the view at Buena Vista embodies the grandness that characterizes the Mississippi River from head to toe; where nature certainly dominates, but humanity has a significant presence.”
Venus Rising (2020) by Christy Lee Rogers (American b 1972) digital photograph, giclée print.
Christy Lee Rogers generously donated two photographs featured in her recent 2020 exhibition at MMAM, Baroque Water Worlds. She creates beautiful, complex, and colorful photographs and videos of individuals and groups underwater. The fluid compositions, choreography, costumes, dramatic lighting, and bold colors Rogers employs in her large-scale digital images are reminiscent of 17th century Baroque paintings by European masters. Her Venus Rising (2020) is a personal response and a message of hope in response to the growing devastation of the coronavirus. Her large photograph Rhapsody (2018) was the title piece for her recent exhibition and features her signature style of choreographed figures underwater. She notes her “desire to express a sense of wonder and tranquility beyond what we see here in reality; and to create a sanctuary for the viewer, a place separate from the chaos of the world, where it's safe to dream.” Rhapsody is now on display in the hallway between the Stephen & Barbara Slaggie Family Gallery and the Richard & Jane Manoogian Gallery.
The Klipper photograph “Mississippi River” (2008) has not been exhibited at the Museum previously, but there are two of his photographs in the collection, and the 2011 MMAM exhibition Stuart Klipper: The Watery Part of the World presented his Arctic and Antarctic photographs. He used a panoramic film camera to capture a serene autumn scene with mirror-like water. It is not currently on display, but will be at a future date.
Hunter (2014) by Seth Casteel (American b. 1988) digital photograph printed on substrate.
Two large photographs by photographer Seth Casteel were accepted into the collection. In 2012, Seth's series of photos showcasing dogs diving into swimming pools became a viral Internet sensation overnight, reaching over 100 million people in less than 24 hours. This sudden attention changed his life as a struggling photographer and resulted in a book deal with more than half a million copies in print around the world. Underwater Dogs is one of the best selling photography books of all-time. His 2019 exhibition at MMAM was well received, well attended, and well reviewed. The photograph of Duchess (2012) is on the cover of Castell’s popular book Underwater Dogs and the photograph of Hunter (2014) is featured on the cover of Underwater Puppies and is now on display in the Museum’s atrium.
The large mural piece Push Boat and Pelicans (2016) by Adam Turman was moved from its former location into the larger portion of the reading area for better viewing. Adam Turman is an illustrator, graphic designer, print maker, and muralist from St. Louis Park, MN, whose bold style offers colorful takes on beloved natural and industrial Minnesota landmarks, Minnesota history, folklore and culture, and his favorite outdoor recreational activity, bicycling. The mural, commissioned by the Museum through a grant from the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC), was painted onsite during the opening weekend of his 2016 MMAM exhibition Minnesota Illustrated: The Prints of Adam Turman. The scene features a push boat frequently seen moving barges right outside the Museum, with a pod of American Pelicans overhead. The dramatic waves are influenced by Japanese wood block artist Katsushika Hokusai’s style, while the sky and bluffs are in Turman’s distinct, simple, and bold graphic style.
Installation of Anna Metcalfe’s A Living Topography: Stories from Lake Superior (2012).
In 2019, the Museum acquired a mixed media sculpture from Minneapolis artist Anna Metcalfe. The piece A Living Topography: Stories from Lake Superior (2012) was in the 2019 MMAM exhibition Upstream and is comprised of nylon, ceramics, and metal. Assistant Curator of Education & Exhibitions Dave Casey spent several hours carefully assembling this complex piece and it is now on display. The sculpture topographically represents Lake Superior and the porcelain boats form the basin of the great lake. The piece was built following a circumnavigation of Lake Superior taken by the artist in 2011. The text on the porcelain boat hulls carry glimpses of several people’s lives who lived near the lake: letters written by a young woman from Ashland, Wisconsin in 1863, pages from a diary written by a young Wisconsin teenager, and navigational charts of the Lake itself. Metcalfe believes “boats represent the ideas of transformation, renewal and transcendence, bringing a tone of hope to the ever-growing concern for our waterways in a time of catastrophic environmental change.”
The Museum continues to grow its collection of great art inspired by water and we will rotate and display works from the collection in future exhibitions, our atrium and education room, and lend works to other museums. I invite you to see four of these recent acquisitions now on display.
Jon Swanson
Curator of Collections & Exhibitions
2020 Acquisitions
1. Alma’s Buena Vista (2017) by Thomas Paquette (American b. 1958) oil on linen, 40” x 60” (now on display)
2. Mississippi River (2008) by Stuart Klipper (American b. 1941) color negative film photograph, digital print, 32” x 92” (not currently on display)
3. Venus Rising (2020) by Christy Lee Rogers (American b 1972) digital photograph, giclée print, 28” x 40” (not currently on display)
4. Rhapsody (2018) by Christy Lee Rogers (American b 1972) digital photograph, giclée print, 36” x 72” (now on display
5. Duchess (2012) by Seth Casteel (American b. 1988) digital photograph printed on substrate, 40” x 60” (not currently on display)
6. Hunter (2014) by Seth Casteel (American b. 1988) digital photograph printed on substrate, 40” x 60” (now on display)
2019 Acquisition newly on display
1. A Living Topography: Stories from Lake Superior (2012) by Anna Metcalfe (American b. 1978) ceramics, nylon, and metal
2016 Acquisition on display
1. Push Boat and Pelicans (2016) by Adam Turman (American b. 1975), latex paint on sign board, 96 x 96”