Lost Milwaukee Artist at Saint Kate Gallery

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Untitled by Leonard Beck

'Untitled' by Leonard Beck

Milwaukee’s John Leonard Beck (1917-1992) was an outsider, even if he wasn’t an outsider artist by the usual definition. He was outside as a gay man when same-sex relations were penalized; he was the son of emigres and bullied at school. In 1935 he found refuge at the Layton School of Art, a bridgehead of modernism and the forerunner of MIAD. Some of Beck’s work is on view as part of a four-person exhibition, “Zurich by Late Afternoon: Collage at the Intersection of Form and Image,” at The Gallery of Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel.

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'Untitled' by Leonard Beck

'Untitled' by Leonard Beck

All of Beck’s pieces are mixed media on boards; all are untitled, and several are identified as “circa 1955” with others left undated. Beck’s color palette was muted and restrained. One Untitled features a Bruegel the Elder-like figure trapped within a disconcerting web of lines. Another includes a fish, a pair of disembodied human eyes and some enigmatic signage. Organic forms are evident even amidst the morphing abstraction. Occasionally, Beck’s work has a rough surfaced, tactile appearance.

George Grosz, Max Ernst and Alexander Rodchenko are cited in the sketchy biographical information as influences on Beck, who shifted with the Zeitgeist from figuration to abstraction and synthesized both approaches through collage. He received some attention locally but became increasingly private in the final decades of his life. Beck’s work is a reminder of the fascinating subculture surrounding the Layton School of Art, the topic of a recent Milwaukee PBS documentary and a subject worthy of a book.

“Zurich by Late Afternoon: Collage at the Intersection of Form and Image” also includes work by contemporary Midwest artists Dan Devening, Amy Sacksteder and Scott Zieher. The exhibit runs through January 11 at Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel, 129 E. Kilbourn Ave.