After 17 happy years at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, the chickens are flying off to Armenia. Yes, Armenia.
That would be the caged chickens painted by Doug Argue, a Minnesota-born, New York-based artist. The untitled picture — 12 feet tall and 18 feet wide — known informally as “the chicken painting” has been a popular attraction since 1995, when its owner, Gerard Cafesjian, then a St. Paul legal-publishing executive, lent it to the University of Minnesota museum. He plans to send it to his namesake Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital.
Fans are invited to stop by Sunday, say goodbye and leave a comment or record a favorite memory of the picture before it departs Monday. Because it is so big, it will be removed from its stretcher-frame and rolled up for shipping.
“I love the Weisman, and think it’s been great there,” Argue said, “but at the same time I’m eager to see it in Armenia. I’m curious what people will think of it there.”
Star Tribune
