News

Gustave Doré and Hélidore Pisan’s Newgate—Exercise Yard, 1872. Professor Sarah Schaefer article in March 2025 Art Forum

Gustave Doré and Hélidore Pisan’s Newgate—Exercise Yard, 1872 By Sarah C. Schaefer Read the article! ARTFORUM March 2025 VOL. 63, NO. 7 Artforum

Artistic Lunar Depictions

Flyer for UWM Planetarium: Artistic Lunar Depictions, April 30 at 7:00 – 8:00pm.

Interested in art and science? Join us as UWM 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… Read More

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

Thursday, April 10 2025 5:30pm - 7pm

Mitchell Hall 191

Vogue Cover
In this presentation, Nancy J. Troy examines Yves Saint Laurent’s wildly popular series of Mondrian dresses of 1965 to reveal the significance of these designs for the French couturier’s career, their impact on Piet Mondrian’s 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

Thursday, March 6 2025 - Thursday, May 1 2025

Emile H. Mathis Gallery

An exhibition featuring research by UWM 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’ Network’s 5th Triennial Exhibition

Thursday, March 6 2025 - Thursday, May 1 2025

Emile H. Mathis Gallery

Wood engraving by Nicholas Wilson

UWM’s Mathis Art Gallery presents the Wood Engravers’ Network’s 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 UWM 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.  

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. 

Wood Engravers' Network 5th Triennial Exhibition logo

Revolutionary Realism: Prints and Portraits after the Mexican Revolution

Thursday, December 5 2024 - Thursday, February 20 2025

Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery

Poster for Revolutionary Realism exhibition.

Revolutionary Realism: Prints and Portraits after the Mexican Revolution explores the traditions of print and portraiture in 20th-century Mexico and their influence in other Latin American countries. This exhibition examines the visual language of revolution, labor, and identity following the Mexican Revolution, featuring works from Manuel Carrillo, Leopoldo Méndez, Diego Rivera, Francisco Toledo, and more.

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
  • UWM 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

 

 

Living on the Edge: Armenian Art and the Margins of Art History

Thursday, October 24 2024 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM

Mitchell Hall 195

Illuminated page from a manuscript.

The 2024 Friends of Art History Lecture marks the 60th anniversary of the Department of Art History at UWM. Our speaker is Professor Christina Maranci of Harvard University (Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Department of History of Art and Architecture), where she holds the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies. Professor Maranci taught in our own department from 2001 until 2008, and we are thrilled to welcome her back to Milwaukee.

Professor Maranci is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on medieval Armenian art and architecture, including most recently, the Art of Armenia (Oxford UP, 2018). Her 2015 monograph, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (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 the Wall Street JournalApolloThe Conversation, and Hyperallergic, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s Open Source with Christopher Lydon. For 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

Professor Kay Wells in Artforum!

Professor Kay Wells has published a feature article in Artforum, which is THE magazine of record for international modern and contemporary art: https://www.artforum.com/features/k-l-h-wells-textile-exhibitions-washington-dc-new-york-chicago-557677/. Congratulations, Professor Wells!

Modern Impacts: Celebrating 50 Years of the Rosenberg Collection at UWM

Thursday, September 19 2024 - Thursday, November 14 2024

Mathis Gallery Mitchell Hall Room 170

Modern Impacts: Celebrating 50 Years of the Rosenberg Collection at UWM

Modern Impacts: Celebrating 50 Years of the Rosenberg Collection at UWM honors the fiftieth anniversary of the foundational bequest of the Blanche and Henry Rosenberg Art Collection to UWM. In 1974, the UWM Art Collection was much like the young university itself: small, impressive, and growing. With this significant gift, the artwork on campus more than doubled in number and was codified into one collection that highlighted modern art of the twentieth century.

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 UWM 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 UWM. 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 UWM 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.

Seeing Stars: A Middle Eastern Zodiac Plate in the UWM Art Collection

Zodiac Plate

1991.002.16. Zodiac Plate. Unrecorded Middle Eastern artist. Early 20th century. Engraved silver. Morgan Moore This object, an engraved silver plate from the early 20th century, reflects the significance of astrology in Middle Eastern cultures. The plate measures 6 inches in… Read More