On View in West Bend

Two years into his professorial career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Fred Stonehouse began blending his departmental obligation—the monthly faculty meeting—with his lifelong love of drawing. Deftly rendered in black and red pencil on antique ledger paper, torn book covers, and repurposed file folders, No Agenda is a collection of never-before-seen drawings made during those meetings, dating from 2008 to 2024. Tucked away in folders and drawers for years, these drawings were never intended for exhibition.

For Stonehouse, sketching helped him focus, listen, and retain information during the hours-long assemblies of art professors and administrators. His iconic characters, fantastical hybrid creatures, and self-portraits as a devil in white briefs, all leak pathos-infused droplets from antlers, eyes, and foreheads onto the age-yellowed pages. The interplay between the old paper and the drawings evokes a sense of mystery and unreconciled history, in much the same way that his thrifted antique frames and dreamlike landscapes surround and ground many of his painted works.

Snippets of the meeting’s academic and administrative language find a way into Stonehouse’s compositions, humorously blurring the boundary between the professional setting and the poetic, introspective phrases often associated with his work. Paragraph long passages, inspired by colleague interactions, add an additional layer of psychological complexity to more recent, full-color drawings, deepening the viewer’s understanding of Stonehouse’s broader artistic exploration of human vulnerability and complexity.

Stonehouse grew up on the north side of Milwaukee and attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, receiving a BFA in 1982. During his forty-year career, Stonehouse’s national and international reputation has grown to include exhibitions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, and Paris.

Main Image: Why Can’t You Try Harder, 2023
Image: Look at Me, ND