Miniature Golf Flexes its Superpowers at Elmhurst Art Museum

A tad gaudy and slightly fantastical as they sit along suburban thoroughfares, their themes can run the gamut from the aquatic to the Jurassic.  A part of the American fabric since the 1920s, miniature golf courses have been around almost a century and can still rightfully claim millions of fans for two reasons.  Visiting them is a supremely casual way to build and strengthen ties with other people and their fun quotient can be immense. 

In the late 80’s, curators at the Art Institute of Chicago came up with the novel idea of merging art with sport; that is, if you can even call putt putt golf a sport.  Whatever it is, miniature golf lends itself to untethered leaps of the imagination.  Recognizing the potential of combining artistic creativity with leisure recreation, the museum asked eighteen artists to each design a hole of golf with its own unique concept, look and personality.  The public was then invited to the playable show and savor its creative fruits.  Praise for the exhibit, Par Excellence, quickly echoed from coast to coast. 

The first installment of the Elmhurst Art Museum’s reprise of that 1988 show was a pretty big success, too.  Par Excellence Redux:  The Front 9 ended on September 26^th and proved a summer sensation that drew visitors from a wide swath of Chicago’s metropolitan expanse.  The museum had originally planned to feature all 18 holes of a standard course together when the idea of Par Excellence Redux was conceived.  Covid, and the many restrictions made necessary by its presence, required an exhibition rethink; causing the project to be broken into two parts.  The second installment, Par Excellence Redux:  The Back 9 opened October 13^th.

Echoing curator Christopher Jobson, the changes needed to comply with the new global reality carry some residual advantages.  The need to restrict capacity means that each individual hole of golf is given more room to be its own entity. Visitors aren’t subjected to crowded galleries now when they step onto the green to test their skills. 

Like the Art Institute show, painters, sculptors and designers with an array of specialties responded to the museum’s concept solicitation request.  Those selected revealed a lot of themselves in the holes they devised and provided potent clues to what fuels their passions.  Hole # 1, The Idol designed by KT Duffy, conjures up the suspense of Stephen King and the alien landscapes of science fiction.  David Quednau’s Toad Tunnel on Hole #3 injects a dose of ecological consciousness with the fun he’s built into his idyllic, in appearance only, challenge.   

Whether disarmingly straightforward or dazzlingly eye-popping, every hole is more than it seems.   And even though a handy score card accompanying the exhibit tells you the number of strokes you’d be expected to take to sink your ball on each of the holes, don’t be surprised to find those projections unduly optimistic.  It pays to read the caption or label above each hole. Valuable clues for emerging a winner, or at least a little less humble, lie in their brief words. Joshua Lowe’s teeter-totter of a hole (#5) A Level Playing Field, is but one excellent example confirming the point.  Regardless of any hole’s ease or difficulty, the nature of miniature golf insures there’ll be more than enough chuckles, laughter and probably a few whoops of delight to make the fanciful exhibition more than worthwhile.

Your own interests and taste will determine which of the holes becomes your favorite.  Donna Piacenza’s Hole 9 Yards, on # 9, certainly has a lot going for it.  There’s intentionally no green, just a black wooden surface with a batch of brightly colored sticks scattered across it.  The hole’s cup and tee lie on opposite sides of the sticks.  Simple, elegant and intimidating enough to be hopelessly irresistible.   After the exhibition is over, each component of Hole 9 Yards will be used to construct a garden bed; insuring nothing is destined for a landfill.  Imagination working flawlessly on two levels.

With the world still walking on egg shells as we settle into the fall, the need to forge, maintain and nourish connections will certainly continue.   In Elmhurst, miniature golf is outdoing Superman as it comes to our rescue.

Par Excellence Redux:  The Back 9

Oct 13, 2021 – Jan 2, 2022

Elmhurst Art Museum

150 Cottage Grove Ave.

Elmhurst, IL  60126

www.elmhurstartmuseum.org