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 – images made through a process of transferring ink from one surface to another – 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.ÌýWhat Is A Print?Ìýsurveys some of the major print processes represented in the 51ÁÔÆæ Art Collection, including seminal printmakers like Albrecht Dürer, 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 51ÁÔÆæ 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 51ÁÔÆæ 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.

The post Spring 2026 Exhibitions: What Is A Print? and The One-Off Print appeared first on Art History.

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’s 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’s 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 SubjectsÌýdraws from the 51ÁÔÆæ Art Collection – the largest repository of Cohn’s art – and explores his engagement with industry in paint, drawing, and print. It focuses particularly on the 1930s – as Americans grappled with the effects of the Depression – and the 1990s, when Cohn returned to and reconceived many of his New Deal-era compositions. As the exhibition demonstrates, Cohn’s 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, 1^stÌýfloor
Milwaukee, WI 53211

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

/arthistory/gallery/

The post Max Arthur Cohn: Industrial Subjects appeared first on Art History.

The post Mondrian’s Dress: Yves Saint Laurent, Piet Mondrian, and Pop Art appeared first on Art History.

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.

The post Demoted appeared first on Art History.

Selected by Juror and 51ÁÔÆæ 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.ÌýÌý

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.Ìý

The post Wood Engravers’ Network’s 5th Triennial Exhibition appeared first on Art History.

51ÁÔÆæ Underground: The Art of Denis KitchenÌýtakes 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.

The post 51ÁÔÆæ Underground: The Art of Denis Kitchen appeared first on Art History.

This show was curated by the ARTHIST 704: Intro to Art Museum Studies II class, this collaborative course teaches Art History graduate students the methodologies and technologies of art museum work, including collection management, exhibition organization, catalogue production, and educational programming.

• On view from December 5, 2024 through to February 20, 2025
  The opening reception will be held on December 5th
  from 5:00pm to 7:00pm
• Remarks at 5:30pm on 12/5/24
• 51ÁÔÆæ Emile H. Mathis Gallery
  Mitchell Hall 170
  3203 N. Downer Ave.
  Milwaukee, WI 53211
• Gallery Hours: Mon – Thurs: 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM
  And by appointment

The post Revolutionary Realism: Prints and Portraits after the Mexican Revolution appeared first on Art History.

Professor Maranci is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on medieval Armenian art and architecture, including most recently, theÌýArt of ArmeniaÌý(Oxford UP, 2018). Her 2015 monograph,ÌýVigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval ArmeniaÌý(Brepols, 2015) won the Karen Gould Prize for Art History from the Medieval Academy of America and as well as the Sona Aronian Prize for best Armenian Studies monograph from the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). She has also published op eds. and essays in theÌýWall Street Journal,ÌýApollo,ÌýThe Conversation, andÌýHyperallergic, and has been featured on National Public Radio’sÌýOpen SourceÌýwith Christopher Lydon.ÌýFor her work, she received in 2024 the Moses Khorenatsi Medal from the President of the Republic of Armenia.

Image: Lectionary of Het’um II, 1286. Yerevan, Matenadaran, MS 979, fol. 293r. Decorated chapter heading. Photo: Matenadaran.

Additional support provided by the local chapter of AIA (Archaeological Institute of America)

Event is free and open to the public.

3203 N. Downer Ave. | Milwaukee, WI 53211

The post Living on the Edge: Armenian Art and the Margins of Art History appeared first on Art History.

This exhibition presents the personal aesthetic interests of the Rosenbergs while also considering collecting trends of the mid-twentieth century. The breadth and depth of the collection is especially significant when evaluating their decision to bequeath their collection to 51ÁÔÆæ to support teaching and learning. Major modern artists featured include Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Joan Miró, Ernst Kirchner, Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Jean Dubuffet, Alexei Jawlensky, and more. Also presented are works by the donor, Blanche Rosenberg, who studied in the fine arts department here at 51ÁÔÆæ. Organized to showcase major art historical movements represented in the collection, this show underscores the ways this donation established a strong teaching collection here at 51ÁÔÆæ and honors the legacy of these impactful donors.

Curated by academic curator Leigh Mahlik, exhibition runs through November 14, 2024.

All are welcome. The Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery, Mitchell Hall Rm 170 is open 10-4 Monday-Thursday and is always free to the public.

The post Modern Impacts: Celebrating 50 Years of the Rosenberg Collection at 51ÁÔÆæ appeared first on Art History.

April 11 through May 9, 2024

Opening Reception: April 11^thÌýfrom 5 to 7pm with curator remarks at 5:30pm

51ÁÔÆæ Emile H. Mathis Gallery
Mitchell Hall 170
3203 N. Downer Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211

The post Saintly: Christian Women in Early Modern Europe appeared first on Art History.