Categories
20th and 21st Century Design Art Curatorial Exhibitions

Jaime Hayon: Technicolor

White ceramic bowl with green embroidery
Hella Jongerius, (Dutch, b. 1963), produced by Royal Tichelaar Makkum (Makkum, Netherlands, founded 1572), Bowl, from the collection Repeat, 2002. Porcelain and cotton. Milwaukee Art Museum. Purchase, with funds from the Demmer Charitable Trust, M2015.12.
Installation view of Jaime Hayon: Technicolor, Milwaukee Art Museum, 2017. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Installation view of Jaime Hayon: Technicolor, Milwaukee Art Museum, 2017. Photo by John R. Glembin.

On view now through March 25th in the Bradley Family Gallery, Jaime Hayon: Technicolor brightens up wintertime in Milwaukee with a colorful splash of fun and fantasy. The energetic exhibition features work from two decades of the Spanish artist-designer’s career, including textiles, ceramics, glass, drawings, and playground equipment. These works represent a wide range of approaches to making, thinking, and viewing, while also remaining unified by a refreshing sense of playful whimsy.

Jaime Hayon trained in his native Madrid and in Paris before directing the design department at Fabrica, the Benetton-funded design and communication academy in Italy, for nearly a decade. In 2003, he left Fabrica to focus on his own studio practice. Hayon Studio now has offices in Italy, Spain, and Japan and is acclaimed worldwide.

Categories
American Art Collection Curatorial

From the Collection: Wisconsin Crazy Quilt

Quillt with many different squares
Margaret A. Beattie (American, b. ca. 1860), Crazy Quilt, 1883 (detail). Pieced and quilted silk with metallic yarn, and oil paint, 76 × 64 1/2 in. (193.04 × 163.83 cm). Purchase, with funds from Marion Wolfe, Mrs. Helen L. Pfeifer and Friends of Art M1997.58 Photo credit: Larry Sanders
Quillt with many different squares
Margaret A. Beattie (American, b. ca. 1860), Crazy Quilt, 1883. Pieced and quilted silk with metallic yarn, and oil paint, 76 × 64 1/2 in. (193.04 × 163.83 cm). Purchase, with funds from Marion Wolfe, Mrs. Helen L. Pfeifer and Friends of Art M1997.58 Photo credit: Larry Sanders

My grandmother made about a dozen quilts in her lifetime and having them around so much as a kid, I sort of took them for granted.

Before I worked at the Museum as an intern, I visited the Milwaukee Art Museum’s exhibition American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection in the summer of 2010. As many exhibitions of material culture tend to do, the display gave me a new appreciation for artforms that had surrounded me my whole life. I saw my grandmother’s craft in a new way, and as someone who just a few years ago mastered sewing on a button, the awe I feel for the craftsmanship is possibly only outdone by the respect I feel for the artistry of quilt making.

Categories
Art Curatorial

Studio Visit with artist Christy Matson

One of the seemingly mysterious practices associated with curating an exhibition is selecting artists and artworks. Once you have an idea for an exhibition, how do you know who and what to include? How do you know what artists are creating?

Even though I’d love to pretend that it’s some innate knowledge that all curators share, this is simply not true.

Studio visits are a great way to learn about artists’ practices. Usually when we at the Chipstone Foundation meet an artist, hear about an interesting artist, and/or we see an engaging artwork, we try to request a studio visit. Most artists are very accommodating and happy to show their work to those excited by it.