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

Exhibitions

Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876–1958), The Wheat Field (Champs de Blé) (detail), ca. 1906.

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Overview

  • September 26, 2025–January 18, 2026

  • Baker/Rowland Galleries

  • Free for Members

  • 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

  • Astor Street logo

  • 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

  • Sallie O. Davis and Family

  • Rockwell Automation logo

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