Jeffrey Machtig
Our personal environments can have a major impact on how we develop and who we become. For artist Bernard Langlais (1921–1977), the places he lived and worked became a unifying theme in his art.
Jeffrey Machtig
“Bernard Langlais: Live and Let Live,” now on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, touches on themes of making as a means for self-empowerment, expressing pride of place and caretaking, and of building and dwelling as a form of nurturing.
Spanning his 30-year career, and presented using original and re-created architectural elements from his houses and studio, the work in “Live and Let Live” gives a glimpse of how physical and emotional environments had an effect on Langlais’s creative process. You will see the evolution of his work from his traditional canvas paintings to what Langlais referred to as “wood paintings” to the large wooden animal sculptures that populated the art environment he created on his Maine property. Visitors will also learn about a critical figure in the preservation of the artist’s work—his wife, Helen Friend Langlais (1929–2010).
Jeffrey Machtig
Admission to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, located at 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan, is free. Due to COVID-19, reservations are recommended. For more information, visit jmkac.org/plan-your-visit or call (920) 458-6144.
