still life

Tag: still life

Wriston Art Center galleries’ summer exhibition series features painters Lichtner and Grotenrath

The work of “Wisconsin’s first couple of painting” — Schomer Lichtner and Ruth Grotenrath — will be featured in Lawrence University’s third annual summer exhibition series at the Wriston Art Center galleries. The exhibition opens July 15 and runs through Aug 14.

A photo of Schomer Lichtner screenprint "Untitled."
Schomer Lichtner, “Untitled,” 1980, screenprint, Collection of Lawrence University.

In conjunction with Appleton Downtown Inc.’s “Art on the Town” event, the Wriston galleries will be open Friday, July 15 from 6-9 p.m.

The galleries’ summer series is designed to engage the Fox Valley community in conversation about Midwest artists and artworks.

Married in 1934, Grotenrath (1912-1988) and Lichtner (1905-2006) became known as “Wisconsin’s first couple of painting” for their prolific work. First employed as artists by the Works Project Administration during the Depression, they painted Regionalist style murals in U.S. post offices throughout the Midwest. They later taught art and design for many years in Milwaukee.

Inspired by Japanese and Persian art and culture, many of Grotenrath’s still life paintings reflect her interest in intricate patterns, bold colors and playful shifts in perspective. Lichtner’s work reveals his interest in pastoral scenes, dance and the figure. He was especially fond of incorporating ballerinas and Holstein cows in his paintings and prints. They are often shown joyfully frolicking together in a Wisconsin meadow.

During the exhibition’s run, Lawrence will host a pair of Art@Noon tours, 20-minute guided tours of the exhibition, on Thursday, July 21 and Thursday, August 11.

The works featured in the exhibition “The Artwork of Ruth Grotenrath and Schomer Lichtner” were donated to Lawrence by the Kohler Foundation, Inc.

The Wriston Art Center galleries are free and open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon – 4 p.m.; closed Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6890.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Three Wisconsin photographers featured in latest Wriston Art Center exhibition

University of Wisconsin Professor of Visual Studies Jill Casid delivers the opening lecture for the latest exhibition at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center Galleries Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m. with a reception to follow. Both events are free and open to the public.

Kissing-on-Mainstreet_newsblog
Jill H. Casid, “Sylvia Beach Way, Princeton, NJ 08542,” from “Kissing on Main Street,” 2015, original SX-70 Polaroid.

The exhibition, which runs through May 8, features the work of three Wisconsin photographers, including Casid. All three exhibitions highlight photography that engages with different conceptions of intimacy, interrogates the archive as a site of emotional resonance and reveals drastic changes in photographic technologies.

“Although they are three distinct exhibitions, they complement each other wonderfully,” said Beth Zinsli, director and curator of the Wriston Art Center galleries.

Casid’s “Kissing on Main Street” will be shown in the Kohler Gallery. Using a Polaroid camera, Casid captures acts of public intimacy and points her camera at the theoretical intersection of sex, imaging technology, vulnerable exposure and policing. She explores the vulnerability and temporality of public displays of affection through a medium that is itself instantaneous and easily shareable yet susceptible to damage and overexposure. An artist, theorist and historian, Casid founded and served as the first director of the Center for Visual Cultures at UW.

The Hoffmaster Gallery hosts “The Archive as a River: Paul Vanderbilt and Photography,” a celebration of the work of Vanderbilt (1905-1992), who sought new ways to understand the world through visual images as a visionary, archivist and photographer.

From 1942-1945, Vanderbilt worked with Roy Stryker at the Library of Congress, classifying more than 200,000 photographs of tenant farmers and farm workers for the Farm Security Administration. In 1954 he was hired by the Wisconsin Historical Society to curate and organize a treasure trove of images that became known as the Iconographic Collections. Inspired by Stryker’s approach of organizing materials around themed collections, Vanderbilt created a unique visual archive that is renowned for its depth, subtlety and flexibility.

Paul-Vanderbilt_newsblog
Paul Vanderbilt and his camera (detail), ca. 1963. Photographer unknown. Wisconsin Historical Society (WHI 87567).

Vanderbilt spent 18 years as the field photographer for the WHS, focusing his lens on rural Wisconsin landscapes, architecture and small-town life. His fine sense of composition created photography with narrative and meaning that went beyond mere documentation.

He pioneered new formats for presenting images from the Iconographic Collections and his idiosyncratic thematic panels and pairings combine thoughtfully selected historic images with his own photographs and poetic texts. “The Archive as a River” includes large-scale reproductions of his thematic panels and pairings, a selection of Vanderbilt’s own photographs of Wisconsin and an array of artifacts and papers that reveal his innovative approach to organizing images.

The Vanderbilt exhibition is organized by the James Watrous Gallery, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library-Archives and is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Lavitia_newsblog
Livija Patikne, “Untitled (flowers),” no date

The Leech Gallery presents “Certificates of Presence: The Photography of Livija Patikne.” A U.S. immigrant, the Latvian-born Patikne (1911-2001) took photos of herself throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s in different guises with intricate flower arrangements. Living in Milwaukee when she died, she left behind without explanation or instruction hundreds of these photographs that portray a quiet, private life of profound stillness, often tinged with loss. Struck by the powerful yet silent composition in these photographs, photographer James Brozek and Debra Brehmer assembled an exhibition of her work, which was first shown at Milwaukee’s Portrait Society Gallery.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday noon – 4 p.m., closed Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.