Sean Smuda, Blueprints, 2013
Julie and Babe Davis Acquisition Fund, 2014
Spanning geographies, generations, and media, newly acquired works in the Walker collection help present this institution’s thinking about the changing nature of art as well as its responsibility to continue to support artists through acquisition, preservation, and exhibition. This notable selection from the Walker’s acquisitions over the past year includes first-time commitments to artists—Allora & Calzadilla, Lee Kit, Keith Edmier, and Sean Smuda, among others—as well as works within movements or by artists we already collect in depth. Adrian Piper’s Big Four Oh (1988), for instance, adds to our already deep collections of works by a single artist, while Shusaku Arakawa’s Container of Sands (1958–1959) expands our focus on postwar Japanese art. Other works reflect the Walker’s interest in transdisciplinary art. For example, Tony Conrad’s “instruments” have a singular relationship to the history of film, sculpture, and music, while Allan Sekula’s nine-chapter Fish Story resonates with other recent acquisitions by artists like Hito Steyerl and Yael Bartana, who are asking deep questions of the documentary genre. Together these works present a complex portrait of not only the Walker’s holdings but contemporary art today.