Free public reception: Friday, September 6, 5-7 pm
with a talk from visiting curator, Annemarie Sawkins, PhD. at 6 pm

This very special exhibition comes from a private collection in Milwaukee and has never before been exhibited outside of its home city. Art Nouveau and its related movement, Arts & Crafts, developed in the late 1800s as a reaction against previously popular academic styles and the heavy ornamentation of the Victorian era. Instead, these movements emphasized handcrafting and design inspired by nature, most notably an appreciation of flowing lines and contours. The exhibition features decorative objects and furniture, sculpture, prints, and paintings from the 1890s – 1930s that capture the spirit of this stylistic era and demonstrate how it permeated all types of art and design.

Highlights of this exhibition include glassware and lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany, cameo vases by Emile Gallé, European claret jugs, sculptures by Emmanuel Villanis and Charles Drouet, and a variety of wooden furniture. The exhibition also features a wonderful array of lithographs by Alphonse Mucha, Paul Berthon, Emile Bertrand, and Eugène Grasset among others, plus paintings, drawings, and other prints of the era.

Thumbnail: Eugène Grasset (French, 1841-1917), Encre L. Marquet (L. Marquet Ink), 1892. Color lithograph with a blind stamp. Courtesy of the John S. Winkowski Collection.