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 Journal, Apollo, The 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

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.

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!

Tuesday April 9th – Morgan Moore, Mathis Gallery Graduate Curatorial Intern will present at 1pm in the Mathis Gallery.

Saintly: Christian Women in Early Modern Europe, showcases our unique opportunity for students to complete a Master’s Thesis in the form of an exhibition. Saintly explores the relationship between laywomen and holy women from the Christian canon by examining depictions of the Virgin Mary and Women Saints in works from the 16th through 18th centuries. Curated by graduate student Nikki Ranney, this thesis exhibition brings perspective to the religious lives of women during this period and the expectations to which they were subjected.

April 11 through May 9, 2024

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

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

Accompanying a course on American Folk Art taught by the UWM Art History Department, What the Folk? explores the terminology and history that have shaped understandings of folk art, self-taught art, Americana, outsider art, and visionary art. It asks which artists and objects are included in such categories, why people have invested in the concept of folk art, and how we can uncover the stories of American artists whose work deserves greater attention, no matter what it is called.

Co-curated by Dr. Kay Wells and Leigh Mahlik

April 11 through May 9, 2024

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

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