Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery

As the only Midwest venue for this nationally touring exhibition, and the most comprehensive presentation of Gertrude Abercrombie’s work ever organized, the Milwaukee Art Museum invites visitors to experience the strange, beautiful, and deeply personal world of one of the country’s most fascinating artists.

Bringing together nearly 80 paintings from major museums and private collections, Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery reveals an artist whose spare, dreamlike imagery including moons, owls, cats, solitary figures, and doors leading to unknown places, become a language of introspection and imagination. Known as the “Queen of Chicago,” Abercrombie (1909-1977) hosted legendary salons in her Hyde Park home, where musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker performed late into the night. Her art, like her life, was infused with rhythm, humor, mystery, and quiet rebellion.

Abercrombie once said, “The whole world is a mystery.” Through her eyes, the Midwest becomes a place of imagination and wonder, where ordinary objects become symbols, and solitude gives way to discovery.

Critics across the country are celebrating this retrospective as a major moment for an artist long beloved in Chicago, but only recently recognized on the national stage. Vogue calls Abercrombie’s paintings “Mysterious and precise as a well-composed jazz solo.” The Wall Street Journal describes the exhibition as “a long-overdue celebration of one of America’s most enigmatic surrealists.”

At the Milwaukee Art Museum, the exhibition is complemented by Gertrude & Friends: The Wisconsin Magic Realists, on view in the Museum’s American art galleries. Together, the two exhibitions highlight Abercrombie’s deep connections across the region and her collaborations with Wisconsin artists including Karl Priebe and John Wilde.

Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery is co-organized by Carnegie Museum of Art and Colby College Museum of Art, and is curated by Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Vice President, Carnegie Museums, and Sarah Humphreville, Lunder Curator of American Art, Colby College Museum of Art, with Cynthia Stucki, curatorial assistant, Carnegie Museum of Art.