Exhibition History - Milwaukee School of Engineering

Sept. 7 – Dec. 17, 2012
Grohmann Museum Fifth Anniversary
MSOE at Work: Selections from Campus Archives
The occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Grohmann Museum provides the opportunity to highlight and showcase the work of MSOE throughout its history. Photos, prints, and documents capturing the evolution of the school and the work of its students are presented to pay tribute to the impact of our dynamic institution, the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Aug. 20 – Dec. 30, 2012
Carl Spitzweg: The Poor Poet and Other Characters
In honor of the significant acquisition of Carl Spitzweg’s Poor Poet to the Man at Work collection, the Grohmann Museum has assembled a display of several Spitzweg paintings, including The Bookworm from the Milwaukee Public Library’s collection. Experience the work of Germany’s preeminent 19th century painter.

Oct. 20-21, 2012
Grohmann Museum 5th Anniversary Weekend
Enjoy free admission and tours
Oct. 19-20, 2012
Gallery Night and Day Special event: An Evening with Eckhart (MSOE Regent Dr. Eckhart Grohmann)
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2 p.m.
From Gershwin to Grohmann
Commemorate the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin’s passing and the 5th anniversary of the Grohmann Museum with the concert works of Gershwin and Tin Pan Alley songs as presented by Dr. Jeffrey Hollander, followed by audience requests.

At the age of seven, Hollander was the youngest scholarship winner at the prestigious Eastman School of Music. He received a doctorate in piano performance from legendary Hungarian concert pianist György Sandor. He often appears in the beautiful lobby of the majestic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, and his CD, “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” was created there. Hollander’s stunning concerts have thrilled audiences in America and Europe. He has appeared as soloist with the Milwaukee and Chicago Symphonies.
Saturday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Lost Arts: A Celebration of Our Working Past
A festival celebrating the activities and ways of work captured in the paintings and bronzes in the Grohmann Museum’s permanent collection. Artisans will demonstrate their craft as the museum and its surroundings become a laboratory for the creation of "Lost Arts."
May 11 - August 6, 2012
Great Lakers: Selections from the Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library
Hand-selected from the collections of the Milwaukee Public Library, this exhibition features paintings, prints, photos, and ephemera from Great Lakes boats of the 19th and 20th centuries. Works by such artists as Edmund Lewandowski, Robert von Neumann, and Fritz Gerlach are featured alongside photos and effects from Great Lakers like the W.E. Fitzgerald, Edmund Fitzgerald, Christopher Columbus, and the Meteor, among others. Boat models and ‘Working Boats’ slideshows are also included in this unique display.
June 10, 2012
Memories of the Titanic at the Grohmann Museum
Piano Portraits concert series continues with the music of Jeffrey Hollander
Commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with music and stories from the Titanic era at the Grohmann Museum, 1000 N. Broadway. The museum’s popular concert series, “Piano Portraits: The music of Jeffery Hollander,” continues and guests are invited to hear Dr. Jeffrey Hollander create a living concert. The Piano Portraits concert series was created specifically for the Grohmann Museum, and takes thematic inspiration from the museum’s exhibitions. Each concert includes a short tour of the current museum exhibition.

Inspired by classical compositions, popular tunes and jazz improvisations, Hollander weaves a series of fantasies touching on sentiment, brilliance, humor and deep pathos. He shares interesting anecdotes about the composers and requests themes from the audience for improvisation at the conclusion.
February 17 – April 22, 2012
H.D. Tylle: Touring Germany and Working in Wisconsin
German artist Hans Dieter Tylle has spent more than 30 years painting industry, working on location in steel mills, salt mines, foundries, manufacturing facilities and others, creating paintings of industry in both the United States and Europe. As one of the world’s premiere industrial painters, Tylle does not simply document industry. Rather, he celebrates industrial achievement, examines the relationship between man and machine, and pays homage to the businessperson’s entrepreneurial spirit. After working in the United States from 2000-09 (during which he created works for MSOE and the Grohmann Museum), Tylle returned to Germany for a focused two year project, Touring Germany, during which he painted for companies like BASF, BMW, and Merck. This exhibition brings together these recent works with those done previously for local industries such as Charter Manufacturing, Kondex Corp., Pieper Power, and Michels Corp.
December 16, 2011 – February 6, 2012
Working Legacies: The Death and (After) Life of Post-Industrial Milwaukee Photos and histories by David Schalliol and Michael Carriere
This exhibition uses the contemporary moment to explore the legacy of work in Milwaukee through documentary photographs and site histories of former and current industrial facilities in the city, keeping a keen eye on their present use and local context. The result is a document of Milwaukee’s industrial past and present – and the hopeful groundwork for its future. From the manufacturing of wind turbines to tech-savvy urban farms, the demise of a working Milwaukee has been greatly exaggerated.
September 23 – December 11, 2011
Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden
As a child, David Plowden was given an inexpensive box camera and before long he began to photograph railroad trains. As he matured and started on what would become a lifetime in photography, trains - specifically steam locomotives - continued to be one of his passions. But by the beginning of the 1960s they were eclipsed by diesel engines; the steam era had ended.

The Center for Railroad Photography and Art; David Plowden, author of Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden (W.W. Norton and Company); and the Valley Railroad Company have collaborated to present this exhibition.
April 15 – August 21, 2011
Milwaukee Mills: A Visual History
Catch a glimpse of our local industrial heritage of lost and forgotten ironworks in Milwaukee and the surrounding area. This exhibition featured paintings, photographs, prints, and ephemera related to the local iron industry of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Piano Portraits: The music of Jeffrey Hollander at the Grohmann Museum
The unforgettable sounds of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and more will fill the air in 2011 at the Grohmann Museum, 1000 N. Broadway. The museum’s new concert series, “Piano Portraits: The music of Jeffery Hollander,” began in February, and guests are invited to hear Dr. Jeffrey Hollander create a living concert. The Piano Portraits concert series was created specifically for the Grohmann Museum, and takes thematic inspiration from the museum’s exhibitions. Each concert includes a short tour of the current museum exhibition.

Inspired by classical compositions, popular tunes and jazz improvisations, Hollander weaves a series of fantasies touching on sentiment, brilliance, humor and deep pathos. He shares interesting anecdotes about the composers and requests themes from the audience for improvisation at the conclusion.
January 14 - April 3, 2011
Lake Boats: The Photography of Jim Brozek and Christopher Winters. Local photographers Jim Brozek and Christopher Winters have both spent time on Greak Lakes freighters documenting the work and workers of the boats of Lake Michigan. The Lake Boats exhibit at the Grohmann Museum featured the captivating and powerful images taken by Brozek and Winters as they worked on the freighters, capturing the essence of life on-board.
September 18, 2010 - January 3, 2011
Wonders of Work and Labor: The Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art, Penn State University. The paintings and prints in the Steidle Collection capture the power and beauty of industry. The images, potent reminders of earlier industrial development in America, are visual records connecting fine arts, industry, and education before World War II. In this special collaboration with the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery at The Pennsylvania State University, the Grohmann Museum presented a selection of the most captivating pieces from the Steidle Collection.
September 25, 2010
Lost Arts: A Celebration of Our Working Past. The Grohmann Museum hosts its first festival celebrating the activities and ways of work captured in the paintings and bronzes in the museum’s permanent collection. A blacksmith, woodcarver, spinner, potter, lace maker, painter and glass artist all share their expertise and demonstrate their techniques as the museum and its surroundings become a laboratory for the creation of Lost Arts. See seven artisans demonstrate their craft to further interpret the activities featured in many of the works in the Grohmann Museum Man at Work collection. Among them are: Kate Ehlke: lace making; Geralyn Flick: potter – Murray Hill Pottery Works; Kent Knapp: blacksmith – Milwaukee Blacksmith; Cheryl Myers: spinning, knitting, crocheting; Sangeeta Patel: painting; Bob “Sieg” Siegel and Luke Traver: wooden shoe carvers – Crafts Museum; Mary L. Spencer ’82: Milwaukee glass artist.

April 16 – August 20, 2010
Working Wisconsin: Selections from the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Hand-selected from the Museum of Wisconsin Art Collection, this exhibition is certain to evoke memories of our own working heritage. Farming, fishing, services and industry—all are depicted in Wisconsin art by Wisconsin artists. Featured are paintings, prints, and drawings by such local legends as Richard Lorenz, Robert von Neumann, Gerrit Sinclair, John Steuart Curry, and John Wilde.
January 15 – April 5, 2010
Foundry Work: A View of the Industry, The Photographs of Michael Schultz. Michael Schultz gains entry to foundries and other industrial complexes with one objective in mind: seizing the exact moment when light, flame, smoke, and action meet in one spectacular event, captured beautifully and naturally in full, rich color. Using only his camera and natural lighting from the work and activity of the foundry, Schultz creates portraits of industry that celebrate human endeavor; highlighting the beauty of hard work. The photographs in this exhibition were shot on location in Milwaukee; Kansas City; LaPorte, Indiana; Hubbard, Ohio; Krefeld and Wasserbillig, Germany; among other places. Schultz continues this work with plans to expand the reach of his camera into other global foundry locations; working in two large foundries in the Czech Republic this fall.
September 4 - December 6, 2009
Midwest Murals: Joe Jones and J.B. Turnbull. Visions of agriculture in the Midwest in the 1930s as depicted in large scale murals by two of the most prominent regional painters of their time: Joe Jones and J.B. Turnbull. A rare display of this important cache of murals by artists working in the tradition of Midwestern Regionalism, much in the manner and style of Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood.
May 15 - October 4, 2009
The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885). Loaned from the Milwaukee Public Library, this is the most famous of all his canvases and is frequently reproduced. The donor, Rene Von Schleinitz, gave his collection of German romantic paintings to the Milwaukee Art Museum but he reserved this one especially for the library.
April 17 - August 14, 2009
Wisconsin at Work: Thorsten Lindberg Paintings and Drawings from the MCHS Collection. Thorsten Lindberg (American, 1878-1950) was a Wisconsin artist who flourished during the 1930s and 40s completing work as part of the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Many artists contributed to the WPA, and many local artists saw their careers developed and transformed during this time. Lindberg, in particular, took to documenting the work of human industry, particularly that of rural Wisconsin and Milwaukee in several large-scale paintings from the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Also featured are a number of drawings documenting the creation of Milwaukee’s Park System.
January 16 - April 5, 2009
Cradle of Industry: Works from the Rhineland Industrial Museum. From the commencement of coal mining in the 1830s, the fabulous Ruhr Valley Coal Basin provided the foundation for the creation of the largest industrial region of Europe - The Ruhr Region, or Ruhrgebiet. Forty works, spanning a period from 1874 to 1989, from the Rhineland Industrial Museum in Oberhausen, Germany, were exhibited in Cradle of Industry.
October 17, 2008 - January 4, 2009
American Steel: Works from the Collection of Tom and Lorie Annarella. An exhibition featuring paintings of US Steel by Howard L. Worner along with photographs, prints, and related ephemera documenting the tradition of American steelmaking. Compare and contrast the European painting traditions on display with that of Worner in viewing American Steel.
July 25, 2008 - October 4, 2008
A Focus on Figures highlighted the figural bronzes in the Man at Work Collection and featured the larger-than-life bronze figures on the Museum roofline and sculpture garden. Also unveiled was the newest addition to the collection: a 12' x 24' mural painted on-site by German artist H.D. Tylle.
April 18, 2008 - July 14, 2008
Stone, images of stonework from the Man at Work collection.
October 27, 2007 - April 14, 2008
Physicians, Quacks and Alchemists: The inaugural exhibition in the Grohmann Museum shows you that there was a time when you'd be better off living with that mysterious ache than visiting the local physicians, quacks or alchemists.
July 27-28, 2007
What's New: 23 recent additions that expand the collection's breadth into even more areas of work, including fishing, lace-making and beekeeping.
April 20, 2007
Harnessed: The collection contains numerous examples of bovine and equine draft animals.
Jan. 19, 2007
Trains: Twenty works depict the importance of trains in industry.
Oct. 20, 2006
Intellectual Capital: While most of the works in the collection portray physical labor, some are of more intellectual pursuits, including a notary, scholar, scientist, physician, tax collector and money lender.
July 28, 2006
Natural Forces: the Medieval Industrial Revolution (800 to 1300 A.D.) used the natural forces of wind and water to produce food, beverages, building material, textiles, leather, paper and metal goods.
April 21, 2006
Inside Industry 1850-2002: An examination of industrial interiors captured in paintings.
Jan. 20, 2006
Changing Skylines: From Rural to Industrial, 1845-1963: Examines the effects of the industrial revolution on the landscape.
Oct. 21, 2005
Renaissance of Science, 17^th to 21^st Centuries: Historic depictions of science in paintings alongside biomolecular models from MSOE scientists and students.
July 29, 2005
Industrial Realism: Hans Dieter Tylle: Tylle captures the strong beauty of industrial productivity.
April 15, 2005
POWER: 13 European artists record in 16 paintings over 65 years the massive and life altering changes bought by the Industrial Revolution.
Jan. 21, 2005
Landscapes: 20^th Century Industry: Early 20^th-century European artists were fascinated by the major impact of the Industrial Revolution on once familiar landscapes.
Oct. 15, 2004
Bridges: Four artists, 1933-1941, portray the powerful beauty of the original design aesthetics and engineering innovations of the original German Autobahn, thus providing a strong influence on other nations to design similar transport systems.
July 23-24, 2004
The Tax Collectors by follower of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and other important works
April 16-17, 2004
The Iron Rolling Mill by artist Hans Dieter Tylle (after Adolf Menzel)
Jan. 16-17, 2004
Erich Mercker's Large Steel Mill and Willem Drost's Geographer
Oct. 24-25, 2003
Sculptor Constantin-Emile Meunier's Miners from the Borinage charcoal on paper and Léon Olivié-Bon's French realist painting, The Apprentice.

Grohmann Museum
1000 N. Broadway
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(414) 277-2300
grohmannmuseum@msoe.edu

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