A one-hour exhibition: “Winter Scenes Across the Ages”

Posted on January 27, 2012 by
East Side Street in Winter Richard H. Jansen n.d. Gouache sheet: 17 1/4 x 23 3/4 in. (43.82 x 60.33 cm) Layton Art Collection, Gift of Layton Art League

Richard H. Jansen (American, 1910–1988), East Side Street in Winter, n.d. Gouache sheet: 17 1/4 x 23 3/4 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection, Gift of Layton Art League, L1948.2.

Last week I had the opportunity to drop in on a new event at the Museum. It was a one-hour exhibition featuring “Winter Scenes Across the Ages” from the prints and drawings collection. It was a perfect winter day, all blizzardy as I walked to my internship at the Museum. A better setting could not have been wished for to coincide with the winter theme of the pop-up exhibition.

I had encountered this event through the Museum’s Web site, on the Calendar + Events page. I try to check it regularly as not to miss out on the numerous special programs that are available. I was thrilled at the  opportunity to encounter art that is so rarely seen by the public (how exciting!) And, as someone interested in the inner workings of museums, I thought it was simply a brilliant idea! Museums try to find new ways to engage the public and share their collections, and to me this seemed like a lively way to see prints and drawings based on a timely issue. In this case: Winter! Continue reading →

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From the Collection–Hiram Powers’ “Proserpine”

Posted on January 25, 2012 by
Hiram Powers (American, 1805-1873). Proserpine. Designed 1844; made 1844-1878. Marble; 25 x 19-1/4 x 10 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection L1897.1. Photo credit: Larry Sanders.

Hiram Powers (American, 1805-1873). Proserpine. Designed 1844; made 1844-1878. Marble; 25 x 19-1/4 x 10 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection L1897.1. Photo credit: Larry Sanders.

–Or, I Can’t Believe I Ate (Almost) The Whole Thing!

In the Museum’s American Collection galleries, in the Lower Level of the Kahler Building, you will find a sculptural bust of a very pretty young woman.  Carved out of gorgeous white marble, she seems lost in thought, musing on something. Could she be musing her fate?

The young woman in question is Proserpine (“Persephone” in Greek), the goddess of spring, according to Classical mythology.

Proserpine is one of the most famous victims of date rape, ever.  What’s even ickier is that the aggressor in question was her uncle, Pluto (“Hades” in Greek), the god of death and the Underworld.

One day when Proserpine was out and about minding her own business, Pluto decided he had to have her for his bride.  Accordingly, he kidnapped her and brought her down to the Underworld, land of the dead. Fortunately for Proserpine, her mother Ceres (Demeter), goddess of the harvest, was not going to take this lying down.  After investigating her daughter’s disappearance—during which time the earth lay fallow and parched—Ceres figured out that her brother was the culprit and went down to the underworld to get her daughter back.

It’s sort of like a Classical version of a Lifetime Network mother’s vengeance movie, isn’t it? Continue reading →

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A Beautiful Friendship: The Museum Store Welcomes Milwaukee Artist Chrisanne Robertson

Posted on January 18, 2012 by
Chrisanne Robertson's illustration in the Museum Store. Photo by the author

Chrisanne Robertson's illustration in the Museum Store. Photo by the author.

This winter, the Art Museum Store has had the good fortune to forge a new and wonderful relationship with an exciting Milwaukee artist, Chrisanne Robertson.

Chrisanne worked closely with our Product Development lead, Julia Jackson (you can read my previous post about Julia’s work for the Museum here) to create a bright and cheerful keepsake ornament featuring Milwaukee’s lakefront.

Chrisanne applied her creative vision and talents with a watercolor paint brush and ink to a delightful design, which Julia then had reproduced onto a glass ornament.  The inside of the spherical ornaments are painstakingly painted by hand with a teeny-tiny brush inserted through the teeny-tiny hole at the top of the ornament.

Yes, really. Continue reading →

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From the Collection– “A Roman Amateur” by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Posted on January 17, 2012 by
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (English, b. Dutch, 1836–1912), A Roman Amateur (also known as A Roman Art Lover), 1870. Oil on wood panel, 29 x 39 1/2 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection, Gift of the following Layton Art Gallery Trustees, plus Layton funds, between 1892-96: George Dickens, Frederick Layton, William Plankinton, B.K. Miller, Samuel Marshall, J.H. Van Dyke, L149. Photo by John Neinhuis.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (English, b. Dutch, 1836–1912), A Roman Amateur, 1870. Oil on wood panel, 29 x 39 1/2 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection, Gift of the following Layton Art Gallery Trustees, plus Layton funds, between 1892-96: George Dickens, Frederick Layton, William Plankinton, B.K. Miller, Samuel Marshall, J.H. Van Dyke, L149. Photo by John Neinhuis.

On December 14, 1894, Frederick Layton, the Milwaukee meat packer and philanthropist who founded the Layton Art Gallery (the predecessor of the Milwaukee Art Museum), wrote a letter to Julius Gugler of the Milwaukee Art Association.

Layton requested the organization to raise $10,000 by subscription to purchase a painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema which was currently on display at Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel as a loan from one of Layton’s art dealer friends.

The subscription must have been successful, because the Layton Art Collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum has a wonderful painting by Alma-Tadema!

This painting, called A Roman Amateur, can be found in Gallery #10 with other works of 19th-century European art. Continue reading →

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Calling All Milwaukee Makers!

Posted on January 6, 2012 by
Title wall for The Tool at Hand. Photo by the author

Title wall for The Tool at Hand. Photo by the author

Have you had the opportunity to stop by The Tool at Hand yet?

Last month, I wrote about an awesome performance that took place at Sweet Water Organics in preparation of the Chipstone Foundation’s Tool at Hand exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The Tool at Hand’s premise is simple: create a work of art using only one tool. Last spring, Ethan Lasser, the exhibition’s curator, sent out a video invitation to 18 artists located in Europe and the United States. Of these 18, 16 agreed to participate in the exhibition. The video, created by Nicola Probert, was itself made with just one tool. In it, one can see a video camera being taken apart as Nicola describes the challenge.

The artists are not told what material to use, what tool to use, or how to use it. They can interpret the exercise as they see fit, as long as they keep in mind certain questions.

Why did you choose this tool?

Where did this tool come from?

Are you using it for the task for which it was intended?

The aim of the exhibition is to explore artists’ attachment to their tools, as well as set up an experiment to find out what happens when artists are faced with an interesting constraint. Continue reading →

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