Minneapolis Institute of Art

I’ve been to the Minneapolis Institute of Art several times and I highly recommend it. If you find yourself in the Twin Cities at all this summer, please visit the museum because the admission is free every day and they currently have a photography exhibit called “Who’s Who: Seeing Back to Front”. Half of the photos were taken of well-known people from behind, while the rest depicts frontal images of other famous figures. The “back” photos are an interesting test to see how well visitors can recognize certain individuals. It taps into the public’s collective memory of prominent persons. There’s a Robert Frank photo from the 1956 Democratic National Convention of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and a young Robert F. Kennedy. A photo from 1965 shows four mop-topped young men in stovepipe pants and sport coats gazing at a Victorian brick row house on a cobbled street. Who else could it be but The Beatles of course. Other photos include the neck of boxer Mike Tyson, a bare-backed Marilyn Monroe, cellist Pablo Casals playing in a stone tower, architect Philip Johnson in his glass house, and President Lyndon Johnson sitting in the Oval Office.