Features

Lecture by Sinclair Bell, Professor of Art History, University of Northern Illinois

Thursday, October 19 2023 4:30 pm

Lubar N140

The visual and material culture of the Roman Empire provides an abundant record of encounters with or simply imaginings of foreign peoples. These images render visible complex formulations of ethnicity, social hierarchies, and power. This lecture surveys the ways in which imperial artists represented the peoples whom the Romans referred to as Aethiopians or Nubians (i.e., “Black” Africans) in a variety of visual media. The lecture also considers how and why these works have been (mis)interpreted or sometimes altogether ignored by ancient art historians, and proposes new ways of integrating them into future, critical histories of Roman art.

Professor Bell teaches courses on Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art, and architecture. He has excavated at sites in Italy and Tunisia and worked as a curatorial assistant at museums in Germany and Greece.

Co-Sponsored by UWM Classics Program, Department of Art History, and Department of Anthropology together with the Milwaukee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Event flyer

Art Exposé Gallery Talks

Art Expose frame
The Art Exposé are 15-minute presentations in which Gallery Staff, Faculty, or Gallery Interns discuss a mystery art object in the gallery collection. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the results of object-based learning and support our gallery team. Plus, you may see something new and exciting you never knew we had!
 
Each talk will be at 1pm in the Mathis Art Gallery.
 

Presentations this semester:

  • September 12
  • October 10
  • November 14
  • December 10

Art Works: Recent Donations to the UWM Art Collection

Art Works Advertisement

September 18, 2023 through February 8, 2024

Opening Reception: September 14, 2023, 5-7pm
UWM Gallery Night Thursday, September 21st from 4-7pm

Art Works places the spotlight on curation and research practices at the UWM Art Collection and Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery. Drawing from recent donations and featuring objects of research attention, the exhibition emphasizes the gallery’s mission at work.

The UWM Art Collection and Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery are distinct in their accessibility to the public and their support of graduate and undergraduate training. Historically, art museums and collections have been shaped by relatively few people, and have quietly carried on collecting, researching, and displaying works with limited public input. Recently, art institutions and museum scholars have begun to lift the curtain. Art Works continues this new tradition of transparency.

The exhibit features pieces by well-known artists such as Dale Chihuly, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Calder. Lesser-known – but no less significant – artists including Max Arthur Cohn, Karen Fitzgerald, and Carlos Hermosilla Alvarez are also presented. Art Works highlights the key players that make the Mathis Art Gallery a rich resource for all.

Art Works: Recent Donations to the UWM Art Collection was curated by Academic Curator Leigh M.W. Mahlik and features research by former undergraduate and graduate student gallery interns, former gallery teaching assistants, faculty, and gallery staff.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Friends of Art History, the Max Arthur Cohn Preservation Fund, the Emile H. Mathis Preservation Fund, the Department of Art History, and the College of Letters and Sciences.

Image:

Detail of Karen Fitzgerald, Lambent, 2005, oil on canvas, Gift of Karen Fitzgerald and Kohler Foundation, Inc., UWMAC 2021.006.03

The Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Mitchell Hall 170
3203 N. Downer Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Museum Hours

Mon – Thurs: 10 AM – 4 PM
Fri: CLOSED *

* Visits by appointment only

https://uwm.edu/arthistory/gallery/

Professor Wang post on C21 Blog: The Use of Dung in Northern Tibetan Culture–From Grassland to Grassland

“Dung is vital for survival in the grassland. The most popular material for fuel is yak-dung, mostly for strong, quick cooking. Just like the Tibetan language has fine-grained terminology for the different stages of maturity of these animals, so as… Read More

Bamana “Mudcloth”: UWM Art Collection Research

bogolanfini Object 2009.002.24

Object ID: 2009.002.24 Object Name: Textile Artist/Maker: Unrecorded Bamana artist Culture: Bamana People, Mali Title: Bamana “Mudcloth” Medium: Woven textiles and resist-dye Dimension Details: H-67 W-45 inches On Campus Collection: UWM Art Collection Gift of Mark and Mary Jo Wentzel… Read More

Ethiopian String Instrument: UWM Art Collection Research

krar

Research on an object from the UWM Art Collection at the the Emile H. Mathis gallery by Mirel Crumb. I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to learn more about an object in the UWM Art Collection at the… Read More

New blog post from Tanya Tiffany, “The Infanta Ana and the Infant Christ”

Read Professor Tiffany’s latest post on the website, AGENART, https://agenart.org/blog/.    

Matthew Rarey to publish book “Insignificant Things”

In Insignificant Things Matthew Francis Rarey traces the history of the African-associated amulets that enslaved and other marginalized people carried as tools of survival in the Black Atlantic world from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Often considered visually benign by white… Read More

Promoting Womens’ Art in the WPA with Kay Wells

Women played crucial roles in the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration as artists, researchers, and administrators. This lecture focuses on the women who worked for the Index of American Design, a WPA project that celebrated early American… Read More

Human Mind Portrayed Through Art – Maggie Kennedy

Maggie Kennedy recently changed her major from Psychology to Art History. In this “TED talk-style” presentation Kennedy explores how Art History defines human experience, and becomes a primary means of studying human psychology.