{"id":5590,"date":"2022-07-25T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/?p=5590"},"modified":"2024-04-11T13:10:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T18:10:25","slug":"milwaukee-art-museum-to-present-major-exhibition-exploring-early-american-modern-art-by-the-ashcan-school-and-the-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mam.org\/info\/pressroom\/2022\/07\/milwaukee-art-museum-to-present-major-exhibition-exploring-early-american-modern-art-by-the-ashcan-school-and-the-eight\/","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Art Museum to Present Major Exhibition Exploring Early American Modern Art by the Ashcan School and The Eight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exhibition Builds on the Museum\u2019s Legacy as a Leader in the Collection, Presentation, and Scholarship of Ashcan School Works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milwaukee, WI \u2013 July 25, 2022 \u2013<\/strong> This fall, the Milwaukee Art Museum will present The Ashcan School and The Eight: \u201cCreating a National Art,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> a major exhibition exploring the work of the turn-of-the-century Ashcan School and The Eight\u2014widely recognized today as America\u2019s first modern art movement. Mining the Museum\u2019s expansive collection of works by the Ashcan School, The Eight, and affiliated artists\u2014one of the largest and most significant collections of these works in the United States\u2014the exhibition examines these artists\u2019 rejection of traditional art practices and institutions and the impact of this subversion on the trajectory of American modern art. Recontextualizing the pieces in this collection, the show also draws connections between the social issues depicted in these works and those still prevalent in the U.S. today. The Ashcan School and The Eight: \u201cCreating a National Art\u201d<\/em> will be on view from September 23, 2022, through February 19, 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So named for their first major exhibition in 1908 at New York City\u2019s Macbeth Gallery, Eight American Painters<\/em>, The Eight is comprised of artists Robert Henri, Arthur Bowen Davies, William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan, all of whom embraced new modes of artistic representation and eschewed exhibition practices that they considered restrictive and conservative. Often embracing a loose painterly style to portray subjects previously deemed inappropriate for high art and museums, these artists\u2014who one critic lionized as \u201ccreating a national art,\u201d while another later disparaged as painters of \u201cashcans,\u201d unwittingly giving them the name by which they would become commonly known\u2014captured the realities of everyday life in the American city at a moment of great transformation: early in their careers, they frequently depicted scenes of immigrants, tenements, urban spaces, and shifting cultural dynamics, social values, and identities. Featuring nearly 150 paintings, drawings, pastels, and prints, The Ashcan School and The Eight<\/em> presents both iconic and rarely seen pieces by these artists, demonstrating the breadth of their practices and the continued relevance of their work in examining and reflecting the reality of urban America\u2019s working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Ashcan School and The Eight: \u2019Creating a National Art,\u2019<\/em> is an opportunity to engage new audiences with key works from our esteemed collection that are emblematic of the seismic shift in the ethos of this contingent of American artists who were working at the turn of the 20th century,\u201d said Brandon Ruud, exhibition curator and former Abert Family Curator of American Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum<\/strong>. \u201cTheir break from longstanding tradition to instead portray a more authentic depiction of the American experience forged a new national art that prioritized an unfiltered representation of urban and working-class life and catalyzed the evolution of American modern art in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ashcan School and The Eight: \u201cCreating a National Art\u201d<\/em> builds on the Milwaukee Art Museum\u2019s leadership in the presentation and collection of Ashcan School works of art. Since the early 1900s, the Museum has stewarded works from the Ashcan School, leading up to a transformative gift from the Abert Family, Milwaukee philanthropists who purchased nearly 50 works across media by the Ashcan School and The Eight for the express purpose of donating to and expanding this portion of the Museum\u2019s collection. The Ashcan School and The Eight: \u201cCreating a National Art\u201d<\/em> advances the Milwaukee Art Museum\u2019s commitment to developing scholarly discourse around these artists\u2019 revolutionary practices, presenting these radical works to new generations of museumgoers, and creating connections across American modern and contemporary history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the notable works featured in the exhibition are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n