Noah Maurer was in his early teenagers when his father, former Minneapolis Institute of Artwork director Evan Maurer, introduced the favored touring exhibition “Star Wars: The Magic of Myth,” to Minneapolis. Some questioned whether or not such a present was meant for a museum, to which then-curator Lotus Stack replied that the film was “an vital inventive assertion.”
From a child’s perspective, the present was a dream come true.
“It was fairly spectacular,” Noah Maurer stated. “That they had a gala dinner and a giant opening, and I obtained to attend the dinner with my dad and meet among the those that labored on the unique ‘Star Wars’ film. It was only a actually wonderful, magical time for me, but additionally one thing that would by no means have been attainable had my dad not been within the museum world.”
After 16 years on the helm, Maurer retired in 2005 for well being causes. He was remembered because the director who made Mia free at the start of his tenure, and by the point he stepped down, he was the state’s highest-paid arts and tradition director.
Maurer, a visionary who radically expanded Native and African artwork at Mia, led the $30 million Goal Wing enlargement and a $50 million enlargement and renovation challenge. He died Nov. 2 in Los Angeles at age 79.
Maurer got here to Mia in 1988 and opened the African artwork gallery that 12 months, a dream for him after a few years of scholarship. The gallery housed 300 items, together with African sculpture, royal regalia, ceremonial weapons, textiles and housewares.
He additionally gave then-aspiring curator Joe Horse Seize an internship on the museum in 1990 and later employed him as an assistant curator. There had by no means been a curator of Native artwork on the museum.
Horse Seize, who referred to as Maurer his “uncle, trainer, mentor and finest pal,” hung out with Maurer throughout his final years when he moved to L.A. to turn into vice chairman of Native collections and curator of Native American historical past and tradition on the Autry Museum of the American West in March 2020.
“He was most likely probably the most clever individuals I’ve ever recognized,” Horse Seize stated. “He had an exceptional reminiscence. Oftentimes with artwork historians, they know details and stuff, however he may apply these details and make them usable, nearly within the sense of constructing connections and principle.”
Maurer got here to Mia in 1988 from the Artwork Institute of Chicago. Whereas there, he labored on the pivotal exhibition “The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art.” He was shut with Native artists similar to George Morrison and Truman Lowe, and with George Horse Seize, Joe’s father, he labored on the exhibition “Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life.”
“Evan understood his obligations to the cultures he labored with,” Joe Horse Seize wrote in a Fb tribute. “For the catalog ‘Visions of the Individuals,’ he despatched out copies of the catalog to highschool libraries on or close to reservations throughout the Plains.”
Evan Maurer was additionally a passionate collector of vintage weapons, uncommon African headrests, collectibles and extra.
“Should you acquire something, you recognize that each object you acquire has its personal story, the story of the way it entered your life,” Maurer instructed the Star Tribune in 1998.
A civic chief, he believed that the humanities may strengthen town, and needs to be part of faculty curriculum.
Throughout his tenure at Mia, Maurer employed Matthew Welch because the curator of Japanese and Korean artwork, one other first for the museum. Welch, who’s now the deputy director and chief curator, admired Maurer.
“He was this sports activities man who turned to artwork and obtained a PhD.,” Welch stated. “He actually was an advocate for the customer, attempting to make labels extra pleasant, the gallery expertise extra pleasant, and so forth. He made the museum free, which now looks as if a no brainer however on the time it was extremely progressive. … I feel he wished extra individuals to find artwork, as he had.”
Longtime pal and photographer Stuart Klipper recalled Maurer’s sensitivities.
“He understood what an artwork type was about,” he stated. “He was an extremely warm-hearted, beneficiant and open man. I can’t cross by just a little child or a child with out stopping by and speaking. I feel I picked that up from Evan.”
An artist in his personal proper, Maurer was a part of the exhibition “The Extra You Look, the Extra You See” of his works on paper, alongside artist Lhamo Yue Liu, at Yiwei Gallery in Venice, Calif., this previous summer season.
Though he was initially from Newark, N.J., Maurer’s storied museum profession spanned the Midwest. He was assistant director at Mia (1971-1973), curator on the Artwork Institute of Chicago (1973-1981) after which director of the College of Michigan’s Museum of Artwork (1981-1988) earlier than coming to Mia in 1988. He retired in 2005 at age 60, and likewise held the title of director emeritus. After retirement he continued researching twentieth century European and American artwork, Surrealism, Native American artwork and African artwork. His Ph.D. work was on surrealist artist Max Ernst. He additionally holds three honorary Ph.D.s and have become a chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.
Alongside together with his son Noah, survivors embrace his son Aaron and two grandchildren.
