Beyond Heights: Skyscrapers and the Human Experience At the Milwaukee Art Museum

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Photo courtesy Milwaukee Art Museum

Cocktail Set by Elsa Tennhardt

‘Cocktail Set' by Elsa Tennhardt, 1928, Silver-plated brass and “Vitrolite” glass

A tidy little show on view in The Godfrey American Art Wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum through September 8 unpacks a fascinating and often overlooked history in the annals of art and architecture. On its surface “Beyond Heights: Skyscrapers and the Human Experience” celebrates the age of high-rises in the 20th century through various facets of visual culture, but it goes deeper to consider how societies collectively assimilate the visual residue of technological change, and how the ensuing battle between form and function reflects in popular visual culture. 

Studying such histories wouldn’t be so important if humans were better at recognizing sweeping social changes when it showed up on their doorstep. We can see the budding of a coming Renaissance when looking back at Giotto’s Arena Chapel, but we’re not as good at grasping what Artificial Intelligence means to society. We may know we’re living in a significant moment and still have a tough time identifying that moment’s Giottos and Van Eycks. So looking back on major paradigm shifts in history offers a fascinating opportunity to see how we’ve incorporated, normalized and manifested changes over time. The case of skyscrapers proves a surprisingly rich opportunity to do so. While tall buildings may initially seem a relatively mundane tool to probe our collective visual psychology, “Beyond Heights” tells us otherwise. The show reminds us of how radical and influential rising bodies of metal and glass once were; how they permeated all aspects of American life from fine art to ticket kiosks to social commentary. 

Industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes’s chrome cocktail sets in a vitrine will grab some as vintage art deco-cool, but as it converses with John Sloan’s adjacent sooty, social activist etching on the wall nearby, they will recall the churning changes that were up for grabs in Americans’ minds at the time. Celebrations of modern changes in the form of Bel Geddes’s sleek and elegant consumables, and caution and resistance in Sloan’s depictions of abject life in the gloomy shadows of urban towers. Paul T. Frankl’s Skyscraper from 1930, an occasional table in the center of the gallery, enthusiastically embraces the spirit of the new vertical architecture on a smaller, domestic scale. He distills the soaring majesty of a steel-and-glass building into a low-profile black-and-aqua delicacy, honoring a new age of modular, angular, industrially produced objects. The piece, along with others on view in the center platform, suggest that form took the advice of function in the heyday of mid-century modern design. 

To what degree it did is still a contentious debate in the halls of art and design schools. In the case of Modernism, it’s a fascinating chestnut. Building with steel frames and repetitive geometry is clearly the most efficient and economical way to enclose humans inside structures. In hindsight, it seems inevitable that our modern cities would irresistibly soar and spread at right angles to never-ending heights. But still, there was resistance: the Arts-and-Crafts movement in the late 19th century and DIY craft culture today. So what does it mean to enjoy the clean contours of a MCM sofa? What’s the implicit cost of never again having hand-carved gargoyles on a new building? Do we actually appreciate the shimmering aluminum cladding on our new condo, or have we been cowed by capitalism to accept the shapes and surfaces spit out of an implacable industrial machine—and does that question even matter? I’m not sure, but it’s helpful to look back to Modernism’s adolescence for answers, and skyscrapers are its loudest and most demonstrative teenagers.

Event Listings: May 12–May 18, 2024

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Sunday, May 12, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tour: Celebrating Mother’s Day
• Sunday, May 12, 2–3 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Work from Home Wednesday: coworking session at the Villa
• Wednesday, May 15, 12–3 p.m.

Gallery 218

• Curious cocktail reception for "An Abstract Nature”
• Wednesday, May15, 5–7 p.m.

MARN ART + CULTURE Hub

• The Community’s Correcting the Narrative screening + panel
• Wednesday, May 15, 5–8 p.m.

Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts

• 2024 Fiber Friends At WMQFA Third Thursdays
• Thursday, May 16, 10:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Gallery Talk: “Beyond Heights: Skyscrapers and the Human Experience”
• Thursday, May 16, 12–1 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Teen Night
• Thursday, May 16, 5–7 p.m.

MARN ART + CULTURE Hub

• Milwaukee Fashion Network
• Thursday, May 16, 6–8 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Artist Talk: “50 Paintings”
• Thursday, May 16, 6:15–7:15 p.m.

Five Points Art Gallery + Studios

• “Temperature’s Rising: Wearable Art Exhibition”
• Friday, May 17, 6 p.m.

Scout Gallery

• Opening Reception: “Go Wild 2: A Study of Plants and Animals”
• Friday, May 17, 5–8 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Gretchen Colnik Brunch and Hat Show
• Saturday, May 18, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Saturday, May 18, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Story Time in the Galleries
• Saturday, May 18, 10:30–11 a.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Member Tours: Hidden Treasures
• Saturday, May 18, 11 a.m.–12 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights
• Saturday, May 18, 2–3 p.m.

Racine Art Museum

• Gallery Talk: Celebrating Frances and Michael Higgins with Collector Craig B. Johnson
• Saturday, May 18, 2:30 p.m.

Saint Kate–The Arts Hotel

• AIR Time, Art & Studio Tour with AIR Anwar Floyd-Pruitt
• Saturday, May 18, 6:30 p.m.