Wisconsin Modernists: Rebels from Regionalism

Cedarburg Art Museum’s Wisconsin Modernists: Rebels from Regionalism opens February 1. The exhibition features 30 artists and over 70 artworks, most all from private collections that are coming together for the first time. The exhibition explores Wisconsin artists who were practicing modernist subject matter and techniques in their artwork from the 1930s through the 1960s when Regionalism was a prevailing trend.

The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Friday, February 2, from 5:00-7:30pm. Kevin Milaeger, a lender to the exhibition, will speak at 6pm during the reception on collecting Wisconsin art. Ric Hartman, Ken Marx, Samantha Landre, Mary Chemotti and Barbara Manger will also give talks throughout the run of the exhibition.

Modernism in America occurred later than the influential Post-Impressionist, Fauvist and Cubist movements in Europe, and it was later yet in expressing itself in Wisconsin. During the 1930s and ’40s, Regionalism was a naturalistic style that became an ode to the agricultural greatness of rural America and its working people who provided the labor. This exhibition will feature artists who bypassed or rejected the prevailing Regionalism trends and practiced Modernism either for a phase of experimentation or for the majority of their artistic careers.

Predominant early and consistent Modernists throughout their careers were Carl Holty, Lucia Stern and Fred Berman. Other artists in the exhibition such as Joseph Friebert, Hulda Rotier Fischer, Carl Riter, Melvin Tess, and Doris White practiced Modernism with abstracted urban or geometric subjects, flattened pictorial space or figurative subjects, or manipulated color, line, and shape to create non-representational artwork.

The exhibition is open to the public February 1 through June 3, 2018. About ten of the vintage works in this show are available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the museum. The Cedarburg Art Museum at W63N675 Washington Avenue is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10-4, and Sunday, 12-4.

Information about additional gallery talks, tours, or Modernism for Kids workshops in March and April can be found at www.cedarburgartmuseum.org. The museum at W63N675 Washington Avenue offers free admission and is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10-4, and Sundays, 12-4.