MSOE acquires home for its art collection
| Published: 07/14/2005 |
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Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) has purchased with donated funds the former Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago building downtown. The three-story, 38,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Broadway and State Street will provide space to display MSOE's art collection, Man at Work: The Eckhart G. Grohmann Collection at Milwaukee School of Engineering, as well as faculty offices for the General Studies Department.
The collection of European and American paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures depicting various forms of work -- from manpower and horsepower to water, steam and electrical power -- is the world's most comprehensive collection of its kind and numbers nearly 600 pieces made between the 17th and 20th centuries. It was gifted to MSOE in 2000 from the collection of Dr. Eckhart Grohmann, a Milwaukee businessman, collector and MSOE Regent, as a teaching tool and as an object lesson in the integration of aesthetics into a curriculum that increasingly includes the humanities.
The museum will allow for more pieces of this unique collection to be viewed together and allow for better access to it. A portion of the collection is now displayed in several buildings on campus and MSOE has hosted a number of themed exhibitions, such as landscapes, bridges and power, shown during regular hours and during events such as the city-wide Gallery Night and Day. The museum will provide a destination venue for the campus community and pubic to view these works.
The building, at 1008 N. Broadway, sold for $1,845,000. According to MSOE, some substantial renovations will by made to the building before it can be utilized, including a new roof, abatement and an entrance that is accessible and welcoming. Those renovations will begin soon, but it is unknown when the galleries will be opened.
Building History
The concrete structure was built in 1924 as an automobile dealership that for many years was called Metropolitan Cadillac, owned by Glenn Humphrey. Extensive changes to the façade were made in 1975. The Federal Reserve Bank has occupied the building for at least 20 years. In 2003, the Federal Reserve Banks decided to reduce the number of locations at which they process checks and the Milwaukee operation ceased in July 2004. The building has been vacant since.
Recent Man at Work collection news:
July 2005 - Retrospective of living artist to open in July at MSOE
A spectacular new work of art will be unveiled 6 p.m. Friday, July 15 at the Kern Center. The specially commissioned 14-by-19-foot painting, The Spirit of MSOE Athletics, kicks-off a retrospective exhibition of works by the artist Hans Dieter Tylle (b. 1954), a German artist who specializes in industrial subjects. The exhibition will include a number of works by Tylle on loan from local companies including Kohler, Res Manufacturing, Aluminum Casting & Engineering and Charter Manufacturing.
June 2005 - MSOE publishes new art book on subject of medicine
MSOE has published a new 68-page book of 17th-century paintings depicting village doctors, healers, quacks and alchemists performing their services with varying degrees of competence. Physicians, Quacks and Alchemists includes 31 artworks and highlights the recent growth of medically related degree programs at MSOE, including nursing, biomedical engineering, perfusion and medical informatics. The nursing program benefited from a state-of-the-art laboratory established by Milwaukee businessman Michael Cudahy. This is the second book published on the collection; the first was Man at Work: 400 Years in Painting and Bronzes, Labor and the Evolution of Industry in Art, a 432-page, full-color overview.
March 2005 - CMC Heartland Partners donates painting to collection
CMC Heartland Partners donated "Piggybacker," a painting of its Bensenville yards, to the Man at Work collection.
January 2005 - Painting included in book on British art and labor
An 1869 painting from Man at Work was included in a new book. The artwork, by Eyre Crow, titled The Foundry, is included in Men at Work: Art and Labour in Victorian Britain by Time Barringer (Yale University Press).
Spring 2005 - MSOE organizes exhibit on theme of power
MSOE featured an exhibition of 18 European paintings that explored power and the life-altering changes brought about by changes in technology during the Industrial Revolution. The 13 artists in this exhibit were fascinated by the production power and visual impact of the mills, foundries, forge shops, shipyards and factories as steam and electricity ended society's dependency on power generated by man, animals, wind and water.
Winter 2004 - MSOE organizes exhibit on 20th-century landscapes
MSOE organized the exhibition, Landscapes: 20th-Century Industry, featuring works by early 20th-century European artists who fascinated by the major impact of industrialization on once-familiar landscapes. Their artwork is a record of the constant pace of the power sources of industrial production, as well as its attraction to workers from farming communities who needed year-round employment.