The Eight and American Modernisms

The nine artists represented in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s latest featured exhibit, “The Eight and American Modernisms,” and its companion exhibition, “The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs,” were not only painters, but authors, collectors, educators, illustrators, journalists, set designers and leaders of organizations as well. The etchings, graphite, monotype, oil, pastel and watercolor images produced by the EightArthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice B. Prendergast, Everett Shinn and John Sloanrepresent art radically connected to these artists’ lives and interests. These paintings, which documented the dawn of the 20th century without social or political commentary, were often deemed vulgar or improper, even though they captured everyday reality from an artist’s perspective.