Author: Claudia Mooney

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Art Curatorial

Highlights of the Chipstone Foundation in the Lower Level

View of Hidden Dimensions installation. Photo by Jim Wildeman
View of Hidden Dimensions installation. Photo by Jim Wildeman

As part of the first stages of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s re-installation, the Lower Level of the Collection is going through some changes. If you haven’t yet done so, go see curator Mel Buchanan and librarian Heather Winter’s 125th anniversary exhibition, which ends with a beautiful rendition of what the Milwaukee Art Museum will look like in the future. Read on for highlights of Chipstone’s collections in the Museum.

Chipstone’s galleries will be de-installed starting on September 17. For those of you that love the Chair Park and the Dave the Potter pot, these will stay up until the end of 2013. So, what does this all mean for you? It means that you should go take a walk through Chipstone’s Cabinet of Curiosities, the Hidden Dimensions Gallery, as well as sit in our round video room before September 17!

View of Loca Miraculi installation by Martha Glowacki. Photo by Jim Wildeman
View of Loca Miraculi installation by Martha Glowacki. Photo by Jim Wildeman

You can experience the three kingdoms in Martha Glowacki’s Loca Miraculi. Try to guess what the connection between the graphite covered taxidermied animals and the Newport high chest is. Spend some time in the ceramics room, opening drawers. Can you find the little babbling grotto? Do you know how agate ware is made (hint: there is a drawer that contains a video of Michelle Erickson explaining the process)? What are some extinct ceramic objects?

View of Hidden Dimensions installation. Photo by Jim Wildeman
View of Hidden Dimensions installation. Photo by Jim Wildeman

Next, go into Hidden Dimensions. Ask yourself questions such as: What did a tea table allow the sitters to do (yes, drink tea, but also something naughtier)? Why would an early 19th century banker have a table with Griffins in his home? Why do some 17th century chairs look like gravestones?

Finally, take a break in the round video room and watch Randy O’Donnell carve wood, Michelle Erickson throw clay, and Steve Farrell turn and make a face jug.

Thank you all for spending time in our galleries, and communicating your thoughts about objects and exhibitions with us! Come visit us at the Chipstone Foundation in Fox Point (open by appointment) or at two exhibitions we are curating at Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art, which will open on January 22.

Claudia Mooney worked for Chipstone, the Milwaukee-based foundation dedicated to promoting American decorative arts scholarship. She researched objects and created relevant programming for Chipstone’s exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum and in the community.

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Behind the Scenes Events

Dave’s Pot and Healthy Words: Fondé Bridges

Healthy Words Mural by Tippecanoe School. Photo courtesy of Fondé Bridges
Healthy Words Mural by Tippecanoe School. Photo courtesy of Fondé Bridges

As is evident from other blog posts, as well as our partnership with the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Chipstone Foundation strongly believes in collaboration. Chipstone’s latest collaboration is with artist, teacher and native Milwaukeean Fondé Bridges.

Bridges has been an artist in residence in Milwaukee Public Schools, community centers and churches for the past 18 years. Fondé, who’s named after Milwaukee’s Fond Du Lac Avenue, has also created public art projects with students at Fond Du Lac and North, as well as Mitchell Airport.

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American Art Collection Curatorial Exhibitions

Layton Art Collection: 1888-2013, Part 3

When we last left off, Charlotte Partridge was the curator of the Layton Art Gallery, which was located on the northeast corner of North Jefferson street and Mason street. In 1957 the Layton Art Collection joined the Milwaukee Art Institute in the new War Memorial building. Three figures are key to the Layton Art Collection during this third period: Edward Dwight, Tracy Atkinson and Frederick Vogel III.

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American Art Behind the Scenes Collection Curatorial Exhibitions

The Layton Art Collection—1888-2013, Part 2

Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink. Filed February 17, 1954. Journal Sentinel Archives
Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink. Filed February 17, 1954. Journal Sentinel Archives

Last month, I wrote about the first part of the exhibition The Layton Art Collection: 1888-2013. I introduced the great Milwaukee businessman and art patron Frederick Layton, and touched upon the founding of the Layton Art Gallery. The first section ends with the death of Frederick Layton.

The second section, which is my favorite part in the exhibit, starts with Charlotte Partridge.

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American Art Collection Curatorial Exhibitions

The Layton Art Collection—1888-2013, Part 1

Exhibition Title Wall. Photo by Claudia Mooney
Exhibition Title Wall. Photo by Claudia Mooney

As you may know from reading Chelsea Kelly’s last blog post, the Milwaukee Art Museum is celebrating its 125th anniversary–-commemorating the big year with three exhibitions. The Layton Art Collection: 1888-2013 is the Chipstone Foundation’s contribution to this great celebration.

The exhibition, open through the end of the year, is located in the Museum’s lower level. It tells the story of the Layton Art Collection, and is divided into three parts: Frederick Layton and the Layton Art Gallery, Charlotte Partridge and Modernism, and American Paintings and Decorative Arts. Each of the sections represents a distinct period in the Layton Art Collection. I will devote one blog post to each period, since each is rich with objects and interesting stories.

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Art Curatorial

From the Chipstone Collection–Presentation Jug

Jug, Staffordshire, England, ca. 1850, Chipstone Foundation Collection. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
Jug, Staffordshire, England, ca. 1850, Chipstone Foundation Collection. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.

Among the Chipstone Foundation’s fine collection of early English pottery stands an startlingly oversized curiosity: what appears to be a 30-inch ironstone tall milk jug, or pitcher.

Adorned with rich copper lustre ornamentation and hand-painted flowers, this monumentally scaled object also features an unusual inscription that gives some insights into the jug’s origins. The gilt lettering reads, “Presented by Alfred Meakin, Tunstall England to Sohn, Ricker and Weisenhom Quincy Ills U.S.A.” Who exactly are these people? And how did this huge jug make its way to the U.S. from England? Read on to find out.

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Art Curatorial

Musical Furniture

Veneered high chest of drawers. Attributed to Christopher Townsend or Job Townsend, 1735-1745. Newport, Rhode Island. Chipstone Foundation. Photo courtesy of Gavin Ashworth.
Veneered high chest of drawers. Attributed to Christopher Townsend or Job Townsend, 1735-1745. Newport, Rhode Island. Chipstone Foundation. Photo courtesy of Gavin Ashworth.

Based on my title for this blog post you might expect this to be about music boxes, or perhaps creative studio art pieces that sing when you sit on them, or even some sort of game derived from musical chairs. As interesting as any of those possibilities may sound, I’m going to discuss not an object, but an intriguing practice: that of using music to aide in the viewing and interpretation of furniture.

In 2008, Chipstone curator Ethan Lasser met with Dr. Christian Elser, a composer, in the furniture gallery on the Lower Level of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Ethan noticed that the vocabulary he used when describing furniture was very similar to the terms Dr. Elser used when descrbing music–for example, they both used words such as “baroque” or “gothic.” This spurred Ethan to ask Dr. Elser: “If you could pair each piece in this gallery with one piece of music, what would that be?”

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Art Curatorial

Chipstone’s Resident Biophysicist—Professor Temple Burling, Part 2

Tea bowl, John Bartlam, 1765-1769. Chipstone Foundation. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
Tea bowl, John Bartlam, 1765-1769. Chipstone Foundation. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.

The Chipstone Foundation’s previous post introduced you to Temple Burling, our resident biophysicist. This post continues his story as he recounts his experience with a blue and white teabowl in Chipstone’s collection.

At the end of my last post, I found myself asking: “How did a porcelain tea-cup with an Asian inspired shape and decorative scheme come to be made in eighteenth-century America?”

This cup is a container for tea, but, as it turns out, the cup also overflows with wonderful stories that partially answer this question. These stories combine science, history, technology, commerce, and cultural exchange, making the cup a slice of a long and fascinating history of porcelain–from its invention in China in the 7th century, to the mania for porcelain collecting by European aristocrats beginning in the Renaissance and exploding during the 18th century.

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Art Curatorial

Chipstone’s Resident Biophysicist: Professor Temple Burling, Part 1

Tea bowl, John Bartlam, 1665-69. Chipstone Foundation. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
Tea bowl, John Bartlam, 1765-1769. Chipstone Foundation. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.

Temple Burling, professor of physics, astronomy, biology and great ideas at Carthage College, has been part of the Object Lab team since 2009. He first connected with Chipstone staff through a shared interest in cabinets of curiosities, an example of which is our Rooms of Wonder exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Since we first got to know him, Temple has been bringing his museum studies class up to Milwaukee every year (yes, he is a biophysicist that teaches a course on museums), as well as discussing possible collaborative projects with us. The opportunity came up when Temple was awarded a sabbatical, and he asked if he could spend this year’s fall semester in Milwaukee studying the Chipstone Foundation’s collection.

We jumped at the chance to have a scientist interpret our collection. Since his sabbatical is almost over, I asked Temple to write about his experience these past few months. View an object in the Chipstone collection through the eyes of a brilliant scientist, in part one of two posts, below.

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Art Curatorial

From the Chipstone Collection—Fecundity Dish

Dish, England, 1681. (Chipstone Foundation; Photo Gavin Ashworth)
Dish, England, 1681. (Chipstone Foundation; Photo Gavin Ashworth)

On the Museum’s Lower Level in the Hidden Dimensions gallery, there is a section on Myth, showcasing objects, such as card tables, that portray mythical figures. There are also several dishes mounted on the wall. A charger featuring the erotic seductress Venus is the subject of this blog post.

The dish in question dates to 1681 and is made of tin-glazed earthenware (also called Delftware). It features a reclining female nude with a child standing on her lap and four more children, or putti, playing behind her. The dish’s border depicts arrangements of fruit, cherries, flowers, masks in relief, and the inscription S/ WM/ 1681. Chargers with this scene are called fecundity dishes and were made in London between 1633 and 1697.

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