Hard Work Never Looked So Good!
| Published: 10/10/2007 |
|
The beauty and tragedy of man's toiling through the ages is captured on canvas and cast in bronze and on display in Milwaukee's newest attraction: the Grohmann Museum. The museum presents the largest collection of its kind, more than 400 years of artist's depictions of workers.
Located on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), the Grohmann Museum is home to the world's most comprehensive art collection dedicated to the evolution of human work. The museum's Grand Opening is Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007, from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is free to all.
The Grohmann Museum's steel and glass-domed entrance welcomes visitors to three floors of gallery space where a core collection is displayed as well as changing, themed exhibitions culled from the collection.
Art-inspired architectural elements
Architectural elements, drawing from images within the collection, were commissioned for the museum. A magnificent Roman-style mosaic decorates the floor of the Grohmann Museum's glass entryway. The mosaic employs images of men and women and the tools they use, featuring a farmer, textile worker, blacksmith, foundry worker and miners.
Above visitors, the atrium's ceiling features a 700-square-foot circular mural, The Element of Fire, depicting great thinkers: Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Johannes Gutenberg and Leonardo da Vinci. Decorating the penthouse, eight stained-glass works depict a rolling miller, a hay harvester, blacksmiths, a carpenter, a cooper, a quarryman, working at a river valley iron smelter and building the Tower of Babel.
The mosaic and stained glass windows were designed by German artist Hans Dieter Tylle and created by German Gabriel Mayer. The mural is also by Tylle.
Commanding art with a commanding view
The museum has also created a perfect place to enjoy sculpture, contemplate or entertain - with a commanding view of the Milwaukee skyline in its spectacular rooftop sculpture garden. Twelve commissioned, bronze sculptures, about 9 feet tall and weighing in at a thousand pounds each, have a backdrop of a city built on the hard work they depict.
Replicas of smaller bronzes in the collection, the sculptures depict man toiling in the field and foundry, heaving hammers or pinching molten metal with hot tongs. They were fabricated in the Philippines through a process called lost-foam casting that transformed them from their original size of about 19-inches to larger-than-life scale. In addition to the 12 large-scale works, another six sculptures are displayed in the 10,000 square-foot garden's interior.
The museum also has an auditorium, docent library, gift shop, vending café and workshop.
Project team
Architect: Uihlein-Wilson Architects, Milwaukee
Construction: The Bentley Company, Milwaukee
Facility details
- Three floors, plus lower level
- Total space: 38,000 square feet
- Exhibition space: 15,120 square feet
- Height from lobby floor to dome top: 82 feet
- Lower level: vending café, workshop, classroom
- First floor: docent library, gift shop, galleries, auditorium
- Second floor: galleries, eight faculty offices, one classroom
- Third floor: changing exhibition galleries, eight faculty offices, one classroom
- Rooftop: sculpture garden
Timeline
2001 Art collection donated to MSOE
2005 MSOE purchased building with donated funds
September 2006 Demolition/Renovation began
Sat., Oct. 27, 2007 1-4 p.m. Public Grand Opening
About the Collection
The Eckhart G. Grohmann Collection "Man at Work" comprises nearly 700 paintings and sculptures from 1580 to today. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. More recent works depict machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism - dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.