Quodlibetica originated from the desire to write about art and visual culture in ways not confined by academic conventions or journalistic hype. Part journal, part blog, Quodlibetica fosters critical conversations about visual arts in a forum that is accessible, engaging, and committed to quality writing. Based on the Latin quodlibet, which has entered the English language as (1) a statement proposed for disputation, (2) the actual discussion, and (3) the whimsical combination of familiar elements, Quodlibetica is a space to argue eloquently and whimsically about art, find out what’s happening in the Twin Cities art scene, and engage with writers, artists, and critics, who like to think. Contact us if you want to get involved.
Of Place and Patronage
The essays assembled in “Of Place and Patronage” wonder about where and how we see art, who chooses it and why. For a closer look at our goals and contributors in this constellation, click here.
by Patricia Briggs
Although we all sometimes complain about the Walker Art Center—its lack of consideration of local artists, the dry tastes of its curators, the cost of admission— we are all nevertheless obviously its beneficiaries. I don’t always like Walker programming but I am always better for having visited. I use the Walker all of [...]
Published 2.1.2010
by Chris Atkins
You don’t have to look far for high-profile stories of conflicts of interest in the art world. Recently, the New Museum in New York was viciously criticized in the New York Times, The Village Voice, and many other art publications for supporting an upcoming exhibition of work from the private collection of Dakis [...]
Published 2.1.2010
By Bill Wittenbreer
Art museums, such as the Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA), that collect and display the artwork created by local and regional artists do more than tell the story of the region’s art. Often times, such museums may treat the work of art as a piece of the region’s history. Peter Lund’s [...]
Published 2.1.2010
Marjorie Schlossman’s Fargo Chaplets
with personal history and annotations
by Collier White
1985, outside Palo Alto, California: I am eight years old. Outside my bedroom door, in the brightly lit hallway visible from my bed, is one of Marjorie Schlossman’s large, abstract expressionist paintings. Partially obscured by the doorframe, the cool blue background and the green and red [...]
Published 2.1.2010
By Christina Schmid
At the heart of each return lies an absence undone.
On a bright day in December, I stand inside the white cube of the Leopold Museum in Vienna’s museum quarter and furtively dab at my eyes.
Caution: Art can cause public displays of emotion and embarrassment.
A man and a woman stretch across the canvas in [...]
Published 2.1.2010
By Kristin Makholm with photographs by George Slade
The art museum was in trouble. It required drastic measures. First, it shuttered its doors, then dismissed its staff, put its collection in storage, vacated the premises, and changed its address to a post office box. Would it continue to exist? Who would take up the challenge to [...]
Published 2.1.2010
By Thomas O. Haakenson
Despite widespread belief, Walter Benjamin did not usher in the end of the museum with the various versions of his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility,” published in the early 20th century. Rather, it is Miguel Helft, and others like him, our colleagues in the contemporary [...]
Published 2.1.2010