51猎奇

Milwaukee Art Museum Director to give Friends of Art History Guest Lecture

Kim Sajet, the newly appointed Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, will be the speaker for this year’s Friends of Art History Guest Lecture. The lecture will take place on April 24th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm in Room 175 of Curtin Hall.

Sajet became the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum late last year and has since become an active member of Milwaukee’s art scene. Before her move to Milwaukee, Sajet previously served as director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery for 12 years. Sajet holds a BA and an MBA from Melbourne University, an MA in Art History from Bryn Mawr College, and a doctorate in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University.

In her lecture, Sajet will address the relevance of art history and two key questions: If art history is fundamentally the study of visual communication, why has it struggled to communicate its own purpose? What is art history for?

Sajet suggests that the answer lies not in defending old hierarchies or rehearsing inherited canons, but in reimagining the purpose of studying art itself 鈥� as a way of creating community and advancing a shared sense of global humanity.

The lecture is free and open to the public; more details can be found here.

Spring 2026 Exhibitions: What Is A Print? and The One-Off Print

alt=""

The Emile H. Mathis Gallery is excited to announce our exhibitions for Spring 2026. These shows highlight the history of prints and printmaking. The One-Off Print: Monotypes from the 51猎奇 Art Collection (curated by Art History MA student Emma Erickson) will challenge everything you thought you knew about prints. Don’t know anything about prints? We’ve got you covered!听What Is A Print?听will give you a concise and digestible overview of printmaking and its history. Check out the blurbs below for more detail.

The exhibitions will be on view through Thursday, May 14, 2026. The Mathis Gallery is open Monday-Thursday, 10:30am-2:30pm (except during University breaks and unscheduled closures).

What Is A Print?

Prints 鈥� images made through a process of transferring ink from one surface to another 鈥� have for two millennia been rich sources of expressive exploration and crucial to the global circulation of images. Until the late-twentieth century, most people experienced visual art primarily through prints.听What Is A Print?听surveys some of the major print processes represented in the 51猎奇 Art Collection, including seminal printmakers like Albrecht D眉rer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, and Pablo Picasso. By illuminating some of the complex technical details of printmaking, the exhibition will enable viewers to consider the creative, technical, financial, and social contexts that have shaped its history.

The One-Off Print: Monotypes from the 51猎奇 Art Collection

The monotype is a hybrid printmaking process in which ink is transferred from a flat matrix or printing plate onto a sheet of paper. In other words, the monotype is a print form without a permanent matrix: it can only be printed once. The One-Off Print, curated by Art History MA student Emma Erickson, features monotypes from the 51猎奇 Art Collection produced by postwar American artists, a time when experimental printmaking was on the rise. The exhibition highlights the versatility of the monotype, a medium that bridges the disciplines of painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Sally Wood Duback, In Search of Ancestors
Robert Von Neumann, Preparing the Litho Stones

Winter Exhibitions: Rebellious Stripes and American Icons

November 24, 2025 鈥� February 26, 2026
10:30补尘鈥�2:30辫尘
Closed during University breaks

Emile H. Mathis Gallery

Opening Reception: November 20, 5:00鈥�7:00pm

Learn more about Rebellious Strips and American Icons.

Winter Exhibitions poster; Rebellious Strips on top panel and American Icons on lower panel

Max Arthur Cohn: Industrial Subjects

Painting by Max Arthur Cohn

The Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery at 51猎奇 is delighted to announce our first exhibition of the 2025-26 academic year, Max Arthur Cohn: Industrial Subjects. We hope you鈥檒l consider joining us for the opening reception on Thursday, September 18th, 5-7pm (curatorial remarks at 5:30pm).

Max Arthur Cohn (1903-1998) came of age as an artist during a period of crisis and reform in American industry. Among the aims of Franklin Roosevelt鈥檚 New Deal programs were reinvigorating industrial production and giving artists stable work. Cohn was one of thousands of artists employed under the New Deal, and industrial subjects pervade this period of his career. He became a pioneering figure in silkscreen printing (a medium associated with commercial production), co-authoring an influential technical manual and running a successful graphic art business in New York City. Although Cohn鈥檚 oeuvre encompasses a variety of subjects and stylistic approaches, the intersection of art and American industry wends its way throughout his work in both subtle and overt ways.

Max Arthur Cohn: Industrial Subjects听draws from the 51猎奇 Art Collection 鈥� the largest repository of Cohn鈥檚 art 鈥� and explores his engagement with industry in paint, drawing, and print. It focuses particularly on the 1930s 鈥� as Americans grappled with the effects of the Depression 鈥� and the 1990s, when Cohn returned to and reconceived many of his New Deal-era compositions. As the exhibition demonstrates, Cohn鈥檚 works not only represent industry and labor, but also encourage the viewer to more deeply consider artistic production itself as a form of labor.

Exhibition runs through October 23, 2025

Gallery and events are free and open to the public.

Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery
3203 N. Downer Ave.
Mitchell Hall, 1st听floor
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Hours: Monday – Thursday, 10:30am – 2:30pm

/arthistory/gallery/

Gustave Dor茅 and H茅lidore Pisan鈥檚听Newgate鈥擡xercise Yard, 1872. Professor Sarah Schaefer article in March 2025 Art Forum

Gustave Dor茅 and H茅lidore Pisan鈥檚听Newgate鈥擡xercise Yard, 1872

By Sarah C. Schaefer

Black and white illustration depicting a group of prisoners in tattered clothing, lined up and shackled, marching in a circular formation inside a stone-walled courtyard. They are overseen by guards in uniforms.Gustave Dor茅 and H茅lidore Pisan, Newgate鈥擡xercise Yard, 1872, wood engraving, 9 3鈦�8 脳 7 1鈦�2鈥�. From Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dor茅, London: A Pilgrimage
Black and white illustration depicting a group of prisoners in tattered clothing, lined up and shackled, marching in a circular formation inside a stone-walled courtyard. They are overseen by guards in uniforms. Gustave Dor茅 and H茅lidore Pisan, Newgate鈥擡xercise Yard, 1872, wood engraving, 9 3鈦�8 脳 7 1鈦�2鈥�. From Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dor茅, London: A Pilgrimage (Grant & Co., 1872).

ARTFORUM
March 2025
VOL. 63, NO. 7

Artistic听Lunar Depictions

Flyer for 51猎奇 Planetarium: Artistic听Lunar Depictions, April 30 at 7:00 鈥� 8:00pm.

Interested in art and science? Join us as 51猎奇 Art History graduate student, Maria Muto, guides you through an exploration of how the invention of the telescope revolutionized the way we see, interpret, and represent the moon in art. Maria studies 17th & 18th century European art and will discuss how 17th century European artists were able to explore the moon with newfound clarity featuring works by Galileo Galilei, Ludovico Cigoli, Aer van der Neer, and more. Maria will take us on a journey to 17th century Europe to explore how the invention of the telescope changed the way artists depicted the moon in their works.

Artistic Lunar Depictions, April 30 at 7:00 鈥� 8:00pm, 51猎奇 Planetarium, Free

The program is open to the public and will include an indoor stargazing session of the night sky followed by the opportunity to ask questions. Not recommended for children under 4.

/planetarium/event/artistic-lunar-depictions/

51猎奇 Manfred Olson Planetarium

planetarium@uwm.edu

Mondrian’s Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian, and Pop Art

Vogue Cover
In this presentation, Nancy J. Troy examines Yves Saint Laurent鈥檚 wildly popular series of Mondrian dresses of 1965 to reveal the significance of these designs for the French couturier鈥檚 career, their impact on Piet Mondrian鈥檚 posthumous reception, and their resonances with the Pop art of Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, and Andy Warhol.

Friends of Art History Guest Lecturer

Nancy J. Troy
Victoria and Roger Sant Professor in Art, Emerita
Department of Art & Art History
Stanford University

April 10, 2025
Mitchell Hall 191
5:30pm to 7:00pm

Event is free and open to the public.

Event Flyer (PDF)

Demoted

Demoted Background Image

An exhibition featuring research by 51猎奇 undergraduate Art History students from the Fall 2024 colloquium taught by Associate Professor Richard Leson. The paintings in this exhibit raise questions about authenticity, value, and the ethical implications of traditional art-historical work.

Demoted opens in the Mathis Art Gallery, first floor Mitchell Hall, Thursday, March 13th with an opening reception from 5 until 7pm featuring remarks from undergraduate co-curators at 5:30pm. Exhibition runs through May 1, 2025.

The gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 10:30am until 2:30pm.

Gallery and events are free and open to the public.

Wood Engravers鈥� Network鈥檚 5th Triennial Exhibition

Wood engraving by Nicholas Wilson

51猎奇鈥檚 Mathis Art Gallery presents the Wood Engravers鈥� Network鈥檚 5th Triennial Exhibition from March 6 through May 1st, 2025, with an exhibit opening reception, Thursday, March 6th from 5-7pm.

Selected by Juror and 51猎奇 Head of Special Collections, Max Yela, the show features 60 contemporary relief engravings that showcase the creative innovation and technical craftsmanship of an international group of artists.听听

This exhibition is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10:30am until 2:30pm (closed for break March 17 through 27th). Mathis Art Gallery is on the first floor of Mitchell Hall, 3203 N Downer Avenue.听

Wood Engravers' Network 5th Triennial Exhibition logo

51猎奇 Underground: The Art of Denis Kitchen

Denis Kitchen exhibition flyer

51猎奇 Underground: The Art of Denis Kitchen听takes a broad look at Denis Kitchen (b. 1946) the cartoonist and seminal figure in American comics. We follow him from his undergraduate days here at UW-Milwaukee as a budding illustrator through struggles and triumphs at independent newspapers in Wisconsin. Denis and the daring artists he supported weathered upheaval in an industry increasingly dominated by mainstream, capitalist interests. Through decades of change, Denis remained a force to be reckoned with as an editor and publisher centered around Kitchen Sink Press. But underneath his business acumen and razor-sharp provocations lies an enduring artistic commitment to the surreal and its strange wisdom.

On December 15,听2024, 51猎奇 recognized Denis with an honorary Doctorate in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies. This retrospective celebrates the occasion. In gathering Denis鈥� surprisingly wide range of works, approaches, and political messages,听51猎奇 Underground听asks visitors a deceptively simple question: what are comics for? In typical Denis fashion, this exhibition suggests that they might be everything but 鈥� or including 鈥� the kitchen sink.

Join us for an opening reception honoring Denis Kitchen in the Mathis Gallery on Saturday, December 14th听from 2 until 4pm. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

  • Exhibition runs through February 20, 2025
  • 51猎奇 Emile H. Mathis Gallery
    Mitchell Hall 170
    3203 N. Downer Ave.
    Milwaukee, WI 53211
  • Gallery Hours: Mon 鈥� Thurs: 10:30 AM 鈥� 2:30 PM
    And by appointment