As summer turns into fall, prints and works on paper will line the walls of the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), beginning with the "Figurative Prints: 1980s Rewind" exhibit that opens Aug. 6 in the Koss Gallery. This paves the way for the upcoming "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade." The Warhol exhibit, which opens in September, will explore the artist's prolific production of artwork before his death in 1987. Each exhibit interprets how cultural influences impacted art in the 1980s.
"Figurative Prints," curated by Brooke Mulvaney, the MAM's collections manager of works on paper, displays approximately 35 images, including many never-before-seen prints from the museum's permanent collection. This exhibit highlights the 1980s, when artists returned to more realistic art by creating images with canvases perched on easels, as opposed to the minimalism and abstract art prevalent during the '60s and '70s.
This time period incorporates the Neo-Expressionists, individuals who chose to convey recognizable objects-especially the human figure-but also tried to capture spontaneous, raw emotion on canvas and paper. Pablo Picasso's later work added inspiration to this art movement, which received substantial contributions from Americans, Germans and Italians. Alongside the Neo-Expressionists, other artists drew from the burgeoning culture of communications and mass media, as well as the commercialization of the art market that began during these years.
The featured artists in "Figurative Prints" include Georg Baselitz, Richard Bosman, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Keith Haring, Jörg Immendorff, Robert Longo, Susan Rothenberg, David Salle and Julian Schnabel.
Two of the best-known individuals from this group employed disparate mediums in rendering the figure, which was of great significance to the Neo-Expressionists. Schnabel added vibrant color, bold strokes and, often, broken crockery into his paintings, whereas Longo developed large-scale photographs. His pictures of executives in extremely contorted positions, from the famous Men in the Cities series, were sold as lithographs.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
The exhibit opens at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6. A reception begins at 6:15 p.m. in the Koss Gallery.
"The subject matter is quite dramatic, and showcases prints from the permanent collection, making the exhibition quite exciting," Mulvaney says.
