MOWA Publications

Exhibitions For Everlasting Enjoyment

 MOWA’s catalogues document exhibitions with lush photography and engaging essays by curators, historians, and other experts. The publications reflect MOWA’s commitment to research and establish the contributions of Wisconsin to American art. To ensure maximum accessibility, the majority of MOWA’s catalogues are offered free in digital format.

2022

Tom Jones: Here We Stand

A thorough and sensitive examination of the photographer who is rapidly becoming the voice of his generation. Included are essays by Jane L. Aspinwall, curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and Molli A. Pauliot, a doctoral candidate at University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Anthropology and member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. The catalogue includes a full translation of Pauliot’s essay into the Ho-Chunk language by Henning Garvin, professor of linguistics at UW–Madison and Ho-Chunk language specialist. Available for purchase in the MOWA Shop.

Marion Coffey: The Art of Color

A vibrantly illustrated 72-page catalogue accompanies the 2022 exhibition of the same name, and includes commentaries by Terry A. Neff and foreword by MOWA Executive Director Laurie Winters.

2021

The Studio Glass in Wisconsin: The Hyde Collection

A beautifully illustrated catalogue accompanied the 2021 exhibition of the same name. The catalogue provides a much-needed history of the Studio Glass movement in Wisconsin from its early days of experimentation on university campuses to the thriving independent studios of artists across the state. Commentaries by Jan Mirenda Smith and Davira S. Taragin.

2020

Wisconsin Funnies: Fifty Years of Comics

Essays by Paul Buhle, James P. Danky, and J Tyler Friedman. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (August 8, 2020 – January 3, 2021). This 244-page history showcasing the national role of Wisconsin comics features more than 150 illustrations are by thirty-one renowned comic artists such as Ernie Bushmiller, Al Capp, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Peter Poplaski, Steve Rude, and Bill Sanders.

2019

Among the Wonders of the Dells: Photography, Place, Tourism

Essays by J Tyler Friedman and John Gurda. Published by the University of Wisconsin Press. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (June 1 – September 15, 2019).

This first comprehensive photographic history of the Dells with essays by celebrated Wisconsin historians spans the region’s earliest camera records to works by contemporary photographers. A tourist destination for more than four million visitors a year, the stunning natural landscape has also functioned as a commercial playground.

Charles Munch: Between the Lines

Essay by Graeme Reid. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (January 19 – March 10, 2019). Thirty paintings from four decades trace Munch’s evolution from pure landscapes to vividly imagined narratives about relationships between humans, animals, and their interactions with the natural world. This interaction plays out on center stage in his dramatic vignettes.

2018

Joseph Friebert: A Life in Art

Essays by Susan Friebert Rossen, Judith M. Friebert, and Ewa Devereux. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (August 11–October 7, 2018).

The book celebrates one of Wisconsin’s most distinguished artists and a major donation of artworks to MOWA, making it the primary repository for works across Friebert’s seven-decade career. This donation occasioned the artist’s first retrospective in twenty years and the largest exhibition of his work to date.

Craig Blietz: Herd

Essays by Graeme Reid and Linda Kalof. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (October 13, 2018 – January 13, 2019). Blietz’s recent body of work Herd includes twenty-three paintings and drawings plus preparatory works that reveal the artist’s creative process. An underpinning of geometry and semi-abstraction infuse his large-scale paintings with an aura of barnyard chic.

2017

Tom Bamberger: Hyperphotographic

Essays by Debra Brehmer, J Tyler Friedman, and Laurie Winters. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (March 25 – June 4, 2017).

Expert in a number of roles—teacher, philosopher, curator of photography, urban design critic—Bamberger is first and foremost a photographer of national significance. This full-color catalogue marks his first major retrospective and his recent gift to MOWA of almost four hundred photographs.

Florence Eiseman: Designing Childhood for the American Century

Essays by Jennifer Farley Gordon, Sarah Anne Carter, and Natalie Wright, and photography by Lois Bielefeld. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (June 11, 2017 – October 8, 2018).

This full-color catalogue chronicles the history of the ongoing Florence Eiseman brand. She and her company not only created high-end clothing for children, but at the outset helped to redefine the mid-century postwar child in America and prompt meaningful dialogue about the nature of childhood.

Gerit Grimm's Fairytales

Essays by Glenn Adamson and Graeme Reid. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (October 7, 2017 – January 14, 2018).

Sixty full-color pages offer the most extensive look to date at Grimm’s sculpture. The heroic scale of Grimm’s fairytale figures is simply mesmerizing.

2016

David Lenz: People on the Periphery

Essay by Graeme Reid. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (October 1, 2016 – January 15, 2017).

Lenz’s passionate and intimate depictions of inner-city children, people with disabilities, and rural farmers are powerful portraits. His remarkable Photorealist technique helps us to see those on the periphery of society.

Gregory Conniff: Watermarks

Essays by David Travis and Gregory Conniff. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (April 9 – June 19, 2016).

Conniff’s dazzling color images of the reflecting pool at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin flirt with abstraction and mark an entirely new vision for the artist. They reveal an unnoticed but magical world.

2015

Fred Stonehouse: The Promise of Distant Things

Essays by Debra Brehmer and Fred Stonehouse. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (September 26, 2015 – January 17, 2016).

Stonehouse is an internationally recognized Neo-Surrealist painter whose enigmatic work is filled with strange, dreamlike characters. This expansive look at his works also offers a glimpse into a mind inhabited by disparate people, places, artwork, literature, and personal experiences.

Wilde’s Wildes: A Very Private Collection

Essay by Graeme Reid. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (June 13 – September 6, 2015).

For more than seven decades, the American Surrealist Wilde assembled and kept for himself a collection of his paintings and drawings. This book presents this deeply personal trove of works that were especially meaningful to the artist.

There’s a Place: A Three Decade Survey of Photographs by J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Essays by Debra Brehmer, Rachele Krivichi, Dan Leers, and Graeme Reid. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (April 11 – June 7, 2015).

Shimon and Lindemann blended old and new photographic techniques in images that respond to Wisconsin as both a place and a state of mind. This book marks their first museum retrospective and the largest mid-career exhibition of their compelling, at times melancholy, work.

2014

Tom Loeser: It Could Have Been Kindling

Essays by Glenn Adamson, Laurie Beth Clark, Jenni Sorkin, Michelle Grabner, and Fo Wilson. Published by Museum of Wisconsin Art. This catalogue accompanied an exhibition of the same name (October 3, 2014 – January 11, 2015).

Internationally recognized craft artist Loeser injects humor into his technically accomplished furniture, transforming wood and paint into something simultaneously familiar, peculiar, intriguing, and beguiling.