Review: 3 Minneapolis art exhibitions to see during the sleepiest week of 2024

Travel back in time to late-19th-century Paris, where a vibrant international scene of bohemian nightclubs and cabarets intrigued then-emerging artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The exhibition “At the Moulin Rouge” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art dives into this era through the eyes of Toulouse-Lautrec and his peers.

The show contains 17 works, and at the center of it is Toulouse-Lautrec’s “At the Moulin Rouge,” 1892/95, on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. An eerily green glow covers dancer May Milton’s face, while a group of writers, dancers and photographers gather around a table. Milton originally was cut out of the painting, but then restored in 1914 before the work entered the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection.

Toulouse-Lautrec loved theater and also designed programs for avant-garde venues in Montmartre, like his color lithograph “The Hairdresser, Program for the Théâtre Libre.” Because the theater didn’t officially sell tickets, it was able to stage controversial works by Norwegian playwrights like Henrik Ibsen. Artist Jean de Paléologue’s color lithograph of “Loïe Fuller,” circa 1894, portrays the dazzling dancer ensconced in flames, one of her signature moves. In Raoul-Francois Larche’s bronze sculpture of her, she appears in the same pose.

The cutest work in the show is a menu that Toulouse-Lautrec made for a dinner party at Irish singer May Belfort’s home. At the top of the menu, next to the address, is a drawing of a black cat preparing to pounce on a mouse. Ends March 9. Mia is open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sun., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thu., Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls., free, 612-870-3000 or new.artsmia.org)

Abstract painting is often mysterious to decipher. Part appreciation of color theory and part guessing game, it’s easy to lean heavily on the title in an attempt to figure out what the artist might be trying to communicate. Such is the case with abstract painter Stanley Whitney. Enter into “How High the Moon” with an open mind. The paintings here will warm you up with their colorful, gridded canvases.

Whitney was in graduate school at Yale University in the 1970s, and as a Black artist he felt societal pressure to represent Black identity and experience. Instead, he turned to abstraction. This was not unusual at the time; similarly, retired University of Minnesota professor Morgan or C. Morgan (formerly known as Clarence Morgan), dove into abstraction. Whitney’s “Portrait of a Dream,” 1983, offers a soothing color palette of pink, blue and green painted like a hazy thought map through memories, anxieties, hopes and fears. By the early 2000s, Whitney had honed his gridded composition style. The later titles do offer some insight into the work, with references to songs, poems, his beloved Rome (where he maintains a studio) and iconic singer James Brown. But when it comes down to it, this work is about color and what it makes you feel. Ends March 16. (Closed Jan 1, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thu., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sun. 725 Vineland Place, Mpls., free on Jan 4., otherwise $2-$18, 612-375-7600 or walkerart.org)

At first glance, Istanbul-based artist Banu Cennetoğlu’s 127-hour-long video installation of still and moving images — gathered from her cellphones, computers and hard drives over the course of nearly 12 years — feels insurmountable. No one has time to sit and watch this video, which contains footage from June 10, 2006, to March 21, 2018. These dates coincide with a project she worked on documenting the deaths of more than 60,000 migrants who sought refuge in Europe since 1993, and ends with the days leading up to Nowruz, known as the Persian New Year and the first day of spring, with roots in the religion Zoroastrianism.

The day I walked into the screening room of Cennetoğlu’s video at the Walker Art Center, I experienced extremely shaky footage of a man cutting up various newspapers, many in Greek, as well as imagery of a small red book with Greek writing. The sound was barely audible. What was this chunk of footage about? Something to do with the Sept. 6-7, 1955, pogroms, Turkish state-sponsored attacks aimed at Istanbul’s Greek population? Or maybe Cennetoğlu filmed this in Greece? I had no idea, and no way of finding out. Most viewers left after about 10 minutes, as to be expected. Cennetoğlu’s project makes one reflect on just how much personal, private data we store on our devices, yet how precious is it, and what would happen if someone sifted through all of it, despite how out-of-context it would be?

Cennetoğlu’s piece is somewhat reminiscent of digital artist Beeple’s NFT work “Everydays: the first 5,000 Days,” a blockchain work that includes 5,000 images that made the news because of its record-breaking price of $69 million at auction, not because of the art itself. The images themselves weren’t all that interesting but the concept got people to wonder what it means to make art in the age of excessive data and information. Ends May 25. (Walker Art Center, see information above.)