(WEST BEND, WISCONSIN) – Museum of Wisconsin Art is proud to announce a new partnership with Art Bridges, a foundation established by Alice Walton in association with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. In an effort to expand access to American art, Art Bridges provides loans from its growing collection to participating institutions, along with financial support for initiatives that strengthen connections between museums and their local communities. MOWA’s first loan is Sherrie Levine’s 60-piece photography installation, After Russell Lee: 1-60, now on view through July 27. The work is presented alongside a selection of photographic works from MOWA’s permanent collection.
Levine is best known for re-photographing photographs made by male icons of photography, placing a feminist spin on traditional patriarchal authority. In her work, After Russell Lee: 1-60, Levine re-photographed existing images taken by Lee in 1940 of Pie Town, New Mexico when he was a Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer. “For Levine, the act of copying becomes the creative act,” said Dr. Jane Aspinwall, MOWA’s Deputy Director. “By photographing a selection of photographs by Russell Lee and presenting them in identical frames in a tightly gridded order, she plucks the work from its original context, giving viewers the opportunity to make their own personal connections.”
Levine spent eight formative years attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning her BA in 1969 and her MFA in 1973. The artist’s rise to prominence began when she was included in a groundbreaking exhibition in New York in 1977 which ushered in the “Pictures” generation: artists appropriating mass media images with varying degrees of humor and skepticism.
“There are very few organizations out there like Art Bridges that allow museums—especially smaller ones like MOWA—the chance to significantly expand the collection to reach new viewers and audiences,” said Aspinwall. “Our next loan, a glass laylight by Frank Lloyd Wright, will be on view in September.” Through this collaboration, future loans will include works by important American artists with connections to Wisconsin, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Frank Lloyd Wright, vanessa german, and Edward Steichen.
Additionally, MOWA will host “Layers of Levine: Screenprinting with Tyanna Buie” on April 26 from noon until 4:00. Participants will examine themes of appropriation, authenticity, identity, and artistic dialogue while developing multi-layered screen print compositions.
Image Credit: Sherrie Levine (b. 1947), After Russell Lee: 1-60, 2016, giclée prints, each print: 20 in x 16 in. Art Bridges. Sherrie Levine, Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/London (detail)
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