Charles Thwaites: A Retrospective
July 16 - September 7
Sneak Peek: Friday, July 18 - 10:30 a.m.
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 20 - 1:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Lecture - 2:00 p.m.
Long overdue, the MWA is proud to mount the first-ever retrospective of Charles
Thwaites' paintings. Born in Milwaukee in 1904, Charles' work through the 1930s
and 40s reflected the regionalist aesthetic of the day and revealed his keen awareness
of his surroundings: he painted cheese factories, funerals, portraits, city scenes
and landscapes. In 1950 Charles and his wife, Wisconsin artist Antoinette Gruppe,
began traveling in the southwest. By 1952 they settled in Taos, Charles painting
Native American portraits and ceremonial rites, realist landscapes and, increasingly,
abstract images suffused with energy and color that saw him join the group known
as the “Taos Moderns.”
The MWA would like to express its sincere gratitude to Helen Thwaits Buttel and
husband Robert, William Ogg, Jack and Carol Thwaits, Tim Dahlstrand, Lucia Thwaits
Dahlstrand and Olof Dahlstrand, Firth and Colin Waldon, the Haggerty Museum of Art
at Marquette University, and the Milwaukee Art Museum for their generous loans to
this exhibition.
Accompanying this exhibition is the first full-color catalog on Thwaites. Entitled
The Art of Charles Thwaites: Freedom of Expression, it is written by Susan Hallsten
McGarry and will be available at the museum's gift shop.
On Friday, July 18th at 10:30 a.m. at the Sneak Peek Friday, Graeme Reid, MWA Assistant
Director and curator for Charles Thwaites: A Retrospective will discuss the artist
and his work.