February Tours at the Walker Art Center Invite Visitors to Live Forever with Elizabeth Peyton's Portraits of Friends, Lovers, and Iconic Figures from Popular Culture, Music, and History
February tours at the Walker Art Center travel into the private world of painter and celebrity portraitist Elizabeth Peyton, whose exhibition Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton opens February 14. This first comprehensive survey of the artist’s paintings examines Peyton’s mature work over the past 15 years, beginning in 1994 with her small-scale paintings of rock idols like Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain and moving forward to the present day.
A vanguard voice in the return to narrative figuration in contemporary painting and a brilliant colorist with a razor-sharp graphic sense, Elizabeth Peyton creates small, jewel-like portraits that capture an artistic zeitgeist using a visual vocabulary that could only have been produced in late 20th century urban America. Three gallery tours (February 19, 27, and 28) will focus on the Peyton exhibition, with particular attention given to the artist’s technique and milieu. An additional tour, Creating Celebrities: Warhol’s Influence and Elizabeth Peyton’s Exhibition, examines the phenomenon of celebrity portraiture more broadly (February 28). Visitors purchasing tickets to the performance of Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips’ 13 Most Beautiful . . . Songs for Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests” (February 28) are eligible for free preshow tour registration.
Tours of the exhibition Text/Messages: Books by Artists continue throughout the month (February 1, 13, 21, 26). Sound Bites gallery talks, held on select Thursday evenings at 6:30 and 7 pm, illuminate an artist or work of art from the Walker’s world-class collection or one of its special exhibitions.
Gallery admission is $10 adults; $8 seniors (65+); $6 students/teens (with ID); and free to Walker members and children 12 and under. Admission free with a ticket to a same-day Walker event, $4 with a ticket stub up to six days after an event. Gallery admission is free to all every Thursday evening from 5–9 pm and on the first Saturday of each month.
February Public Tours
Gallery and Architecture Tours
Thursday–Sunday, 2 pm
Free with gallery admission
Check the calendar listing, visit the lobby desk, or call the box office for details and tour topics. To schedule a private group tour, visit learn.walkerart.org or call 612.375.7609.
Text/Messages: Books by Artists Gallery Tours
Sunday, February 1, 2 pm
Friday, February 13, 2pm
Saturday, February 21, 2 pm
Thursday, February 26, 2 pm
Elizabeth Peyton: Live Forever Gallery Tours
Thursday, February 19, 2 pm
Friday, February 27, 2 pm
Saturday, February 28, 2 pm
Walker Collection Tours
Thursday, February 5, 2 pm
Friday, February 6, 2 pm
Thursday, February 12, 2 pm
Saturday, February 14, 2 pm
Sunday, February 15, 2 pm
Friday, February 20, 2 pm
Sunday, February 22, 2 pm
Architecture Tours
Sunday, February 8, 2 pm
Creating Celebrities: Warhol’s Influence and Elizabeth Peyton’s Exhibition
Preshow Gallery Tour
Friday, February 28, 7 pm
Free with event ticket
Purchase a ticket to 13 Most Beautiful . . . Songs for Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests” and register for a free preshow tour of the exhibition Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton, which focuses on the artistic practice of celebrity portraiture. Limited to 25 people; early registration encouraged.
Sound Bites
Select Thursdays at 6:30 and 7 pm
Free
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker curators and tour guides. Each offers an illuminating discussion, and participants leave feeling connected to new and exciting ideas. Carry this fresh, energized perspective with you to one of the Target Free Thursday Nights programs.
February 12: Salvador Dali’s Alice in Wonderland
February 19: Appropriation in Art
February 26: Contemporary Portraiture