Tag: Wisconsin art

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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.

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Categories
American Art Collection Curatorial

From the Collection–Cyril Colnik Iron Basket

Cyril Colnik (American, b. Austria, 1871–1958), Hanging Basket, ca. 1900. Iron, glass; 35 x 8 x 8 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase, with funds from the American Arts Society M2012.299a–d.
Cyril Colnik (American, b. Austria, 1871–1958), Hanging Basket, ca. 1900. Detail. Iron, glass; 35 x 8 x 8 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase, with funds from the American Arts Society M2012.299a–d. Photo by the author.

Though the Museum’s mission is to present, in our official lingo, “four floors of over forty galleries of art with works from antiquity to the present,” I’m probably not alone among curators in getting most excited when we acquire and exhibit world-class artwork made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This year, I was thrilled to work with our Museum’s support group dedicated to American fine and decorative arts (the American Arts Society, or AAS) to bring to the Museum’s Collection a fantastic iron hanging basket that was designed, made, and kept in Milwaukee.

While operating The Ornamental Iron Shop for over 60 years in Milwaukee, master iron artisan Cyril Colnik (American, b. Austria, 1871–1958) moved with changing fashions of his posh clientele in the finest homes of this city.

It you see stunning ironwork in Milwaukee, it’s probably by Colnik. To walk on the East Side, or along Lake Drive, is to enjoy a veritable open air Colnik museum.

And now, thanks to the American Arts Society, his artwork is also within the galleries of the Museum!

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