Category: Art

Categories
Art

Wood, Water and Memory: A New Perspective on Lake Superior

George Morrison (Ojibwe, 1919–2000), Landscape (detail), 1986. Found and prepared weathered wood. 48 × 144 × 3 in. (121.9 × 365.8 × 7.6 cm). On loan from Art Bridges.

Most artists begin with a blank canvas. George Morrison began with the shoreline.

Along the beaches of Lake Superior, the Ojibwe artist collected weathered pieces of driftwood shaped by wind, water, and time. In his hands, these ordinary materials became something extraordinary. Rather than using paint to imitate the landscape, Morrison transformed the landscape itself into art, assembling hundreds of pieces of wood into abstract compositions that evoke vast horizons, restless water, and the quiet rhythm of nature.

Continue reading “Wood, Water and Memory: A New Perspective on Lake Superior”
Categories
Art

The Bradley Collection on the Move

A woman in a pink outfit stands in an art gallery, engaging with a man holding a microphone and recording device. Colorful abstract artworks are displayed on the walls.
Mrs. Harry Lynde “Peg” Bradley being interviewed in 1975 after the opening of the Bradley Collection at the Milwaukee Art Center.
A woman in a pink dress stands in an art gallery, holding a hand gesture while looking directly at the camera. Beside her, a man with a portable audio device is dressed in a patterned shirt. In the background, various colorful paintings and sculptures are displayed.

On September 21, 1975, the David Kahler-designed addition to the Milwaukee Art Center opened to the public. Among its many draws were newly constructed galleries on the second floor to house Peg Bradley’s extensive collection of 20th-century painting, sculpture, and works on paper.

Continue reading “The Bradley Collection on the Move”
Categories
Art

A Bright New Look for a Beloved Milwaukee Tradition

Lakefront Festival of Art is turning 60—and it’s never looked better.

As Milwaukee’s signature summer celebration of creativity, Lakefront Festival of Art has long been where art lovers, families, and festivalgoers come together to enjoy art, community, culture, and our city’s unbeatable lakefront views. To mark the festival’s 60th year, the Milwaukee Art Museum is unveiling a fresh new look for LFOA—one that honors its legacy while turning up the energy.

Continue reading “A Bright New Look for a Beloved Milwaukee Tradition”
Categories
20th and 21st Century Design Art Collection

Welcoming “Miss Blanche” into the Design Collection

Detail of Miss Blanche by Shiro Kuramata

On the heels of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual Art in Bloom celebration, a new kind of flower is blooming in the design collection galleries: the Miss Blanche chair created by Shiro Kuramata. It is one of the final works by Kuramata, the legendary designer who brought Japanese design onto the global stage with his expressive and conceptual objects. An homage to Blanche DuBoise, the heroine of Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire, the chair exemplifies his poetic approach to the everyday and his longstanding engagement with materiality. Its presence in the galleries expands the Museum’s narratives around Japanese design and provides a new, exciting context to the beloved Carlton bookcase by Ettore Sottsass.

Continue reading “Welcoming “Miss Blanche” into the Design Collection”
Categories
20th and 21st Century Design Art

20th-Century Silver: An Unexpected Medium for Modernism

Circa '70 Tea and Coffee Service

Alongside many other strengths, the Milwaukee Art Museum boasts a remarkable collection of modern American silver. To celebrate these holdings, we wanted to reflect on a few of the significant 20th-century works here at the Museum.

Silversmithing has a long history in the United States, but in the 20th century it emerged as an unexpected medium for the exploration of modern forms and lines. Each an important part of the story of modern silver in the United States, the works featured below express how different designers related to and understood the goals of modernism, and how they worked through a range of ideas around production, craftsmanship, and aesthetics. Some of these objects are currently on view while others will make future appearances in permanent galleries or exhibitions.

Continue reading “20th-Century Silver: An Unexpected Medium for Modernism”
Categories
20th and 21st Century Design Art

A Closer Look: Ruth Asawa’s Milwaukee Connection

The pioneering sculptor, educator, and arts activist Ruth Asawa spent most of her life in California, but she has a surprising—and significant—connection to Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee. A new work acquired in 2020 and recently installed in the 20th- and 21st-Century Design Galleries represents Asawa’s time in the city and speaks to its impact on this influential artist and her career.

Continue reading “A Closer Look: Ruth Asawa’s Milwaukee Connection”
Categories
Art European

From the Collection: “Orpheus” and Its Mysterious Origins

Orpheus
Orpheus

Through January 28, 2024, Milwaukee Art Museum visitors have the opportunity to explore an exquisite collection of artworks on view in Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader. The 75 paintings presented in the exhibition were assembled while the Baders, longtime Museum patrons and supporters, were living in Milwaukee. They not only gave artworks to the Museum—many of which are on view in the collection galleries—but were formative in the development of the European art program at the Museum.

One such artwork is the painting Orpheus by Adriaen van Nieulandt the Younger, on view in gallery S106. The painting shows a popular mythological scene, and closer inspection of the work reveals the artwork’s interesting origins.

Continue reading “From the Collection: “Orpheus” and Its Mysterious Origins”
Categories
Art European

Granida and Daifilo: Celebrating Dutch Theater in the Collection of Alfred Bader

Granida and Daifilo by Jacob Andriaensz
Granida and Daifilo by Jacob Andriaensz

Opening September 29 at the Milwaukee Art Museum is Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader. The 75 paintings presented in the exhibition were assembled while the Baders, longtime Museum patrons and supporters, were living in Milwaukee. They not only gave artworks to the Museum—many of which are on view in the collection galleries—but were formative in the development of the European art program at the Museum.

In anticipation of the exhibition, today we’ll look at two paintings with the same subject that passed through Alfred Bader’s hands: one is on view in the Museum’s collection galleries and the other is in the exhibition.

Continue reading “Granida and Daifilo: Celebrating Dutch Theater in the Collection of Alfred Bader”
Categories
Art Behind the Scenes Contemporary

Conserving “The Suitcase”

Children looking into a suitcase in the gallery

For more than two years, the conservation team at the Milwaukee Art Museum has been collaborating with other experts to conserve Robert Gober’s Untitled installation so it can return to the galleries and again immerse viewers in an animated, watery scene, as the artist originally intended. When visitors peer inside the suitcase, they often think the watery tableau is created by a screen. The truth is much more exciting! What you see is a sculpted pool filled with gently lapping water, silicone seaweed, and wax limbs. But this installation, like all artwork, is not inert. Gober made the work in 1997, and over the course of 26 years, mechanical elements became worn and algae grew.

Continue reading “Conserving “The Suitcase””
Categories
Art

In the Driver’s Seat: Steering a Volvo into the Museum

Classic yellow Volvo in the Museum galleria

Spoiler alert: Visitors who come to the Museum for the exhibition Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980 will find a Volvo in the galleries. Dedicated to the extensive cultural exchange between Scandinavia and the U.S. in the 20th century, the exhibition presents the Volvo and its innovative seatbelts as examples of design for social change.

Continue reading “In the Driver’s Seat: Steering a Volvo into the Museum”