The Bradley Collection of Modern Art: A Bold Vision for Milwaukee


Overview
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September 26, 2025–January 18, 2026
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Baker/Rowland Galleries
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Free for Members
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Included with admission
Fifty years ago, Mrs. Harry Lynde “Peg” Bradley’s extraordinary gift of nearly 400 twentieth-century masterpieces shaped the Museum's collection and Milwaukee's cultural landscape. Her collection placed the city in the global spotlight as a leading cultural destination for modern art, and its legacy continues to inspire generations.
Peg Bradley was a prominent Milwaukee-based philanthropist and prolific art collector who followed her intuition and personal taste to build a substantial collection of modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. In the mid-1970s, she honored her late husband Harry’s civic pride in Milwaukee and kept the world-class collection in their hometown by donating it to the Museum. Her remarkable gift prompted the construction of a new wing and enriched the collection with strong holdings of German Expressionism, postwar abstraction, and modern sculpture—many of which are now considered the Museum's great treasures.
The exhibition features nearly 100 works by renowned artists Barbara Hepworth, Alex Katz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, and Mark Rothko, among many others, and presents these iconic artworks like never before with new scholarship and recent conservation treatments.
Selected artworks
Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876–1958), The Wheat Field (Champs de Blé), ca. 1906.
Oil on canvas. 25 15/16 × 32 3/16 × 1 3/16 in. (65.9 × 81.8 × 3 cm) framed: 24 1/4 × 41 in. (61.6 × 104.14 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1953.12 © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Alex Katz (American, b. 1927), Sunny #4, 1971.
Oil on canvas. 96 1/4 × 72 in. (244.48 × 182.88 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1975.143 © 2025 Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY

Stuart Davis (American, 1892–1964), Stele, 1956.
Oil on canvas. 52 1/4 × 40 1/8 in. (132.72 × 101.92 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1963.129 © 2025 Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903–1975), Two Piece Marble (Rangatira), 1968–69.
Marble. 66 × 35 × 18 in. (167.64 × 88.9 × 45.72 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of the Bradley Family Foundation, M2008.55. Barbara Hepworth © Bowness

Gabriele Münter (German, 1877–1962), Portrait of a Young Woman (Bildnis einer jungen Dame), 1909.
Oil on canvas. 27 5/8 × 19 in. (70.17 × 48.26 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1966.164 © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Wassily Kandinsky (French, b. Russia, 1866–1944), Fragment I for Composition VII (Center), 1913.
Oil on canvas. 34 15/16 × 39 7/16 in. (88.74 × 100.17 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1958.12

Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Campbell's Soup, 1965.
Acrylic on canvas. 36 × 24 in. (91.44 × 60.96 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1977.157 © 2025 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986), Poppies, 1950.
Oil on canvas. 36 × 30 in. (91.44 × 76.2 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley, M1977.133 © 2025 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Support
Presenting sponsors
David and Julia Uihlein
Lynde B. Uihlein
Leadership sponsors
Anthony and Vicki Cecalupo
Donna and Donald Baumgartner
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Friends of Art
Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation
Supporting sponsors
Geralyn Cannon
Contributing sponsors
Thomas Hesselbrock and Carl Spatz
Elizabeth Levins and Herbert Zien
The Milwaukee Art Museum extends its sincere thanks to the Visionaries.
Mark and Debbie Attanasio
Donna and Donald Baumgartner
Murph Burke
The Helmerich Trust
Kenneth and Alice Kayser
Joan Lubar and John Crouch
Joel and Caran Quadracci
Sue and Bud Selig
Jeff and Gail Yabuki