Museums celebrate Midwestern art, modern masters

Many of us recoil at the thought of hosting vacationing guests over the summer. But when it comes to art museums, hosting major tours, specialty loans and works from living artists themselves can a boon.

This summer, three area museums host visiting works that show off the grand sweep of art from the late 19th century to current examples of 21st century creations.

Contextual couplings

The Art Institute of Chicago is no stranger to mounting major exhibits or retrospectives.

But sometimes there are temporary loans of works from other museums or newly acquired pieces that help to expand or contextualize what's already within the museum's prized collection. That's the case with two smaller exhibits about to debut at the Art Institute.

“Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions” runs from June 20 to Sept. 27, and is an in-depth look at 19th century collaboration and mentorship between the famed American artist James McNeill Whistler and the lesser-known British artist Theodore Roussel. The exhibit features 175 objects including lithographs, etchings and artist-designed frames. There is even personal correspondence between the artists on loan from Roussel's descendants.

“What we're trying to do is to take a fresh look at the nature of collaboration in late 19th century London, and also to think in a new way about how Whistler interacted with other artists as well as literary figures, professional models, critics and collectors,” said Victoria Sancho Lobis, the Prince Trust associate curator of prints and drawing for the Art Institute.

“We're hoping that people will come to the exhibition because they're already familiar with Whistler and love late 19th century works on paper,” said Lobis, adding that this show is centered around a major gift of Roussel works owned by Chicagoans Meg and Mark Hausberg. “But in the course of the exhibition they will also fall in love with Theodore Roussel.”

Also on view this summer is the Impressionist exhibit “Degas: At the Track, On the Stage” running from July 1 to February 2016. The exhibit, which looks at the iconic 19th century French artist's obsession with ballet dancers and horse races, was formed around the loan of two works from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.: the painting “Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey” and the sculpture “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.”

Buffalo sends its best

Many more big names of late 19th- and early 20th-century art are heading to Wisconsin when the Milwaukee Art Museum hosts the tour “Van Gogh to Pollock: Modern Rebels” from June 18 to Sept. 20.

The exhibit is made up entirely of the holdings of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and Milwaukee is the tour's final stop after being previously seen in Denver, San Diego and Bentonville, Arkansas.

“The Albright-Knox is actually doing a major renovation of their collection galleries, so they took this opportunity to tour the highlights of their great collection,” said Milwaukee Art Museum chief curator Brady Roberts. “The Albright-Knox is a relatively small museum in a small American city, but it has one of the great collections of modern art anywhere.”

The exhibit is arranged chronologically in time, so you see the greats of various moments of modern art stretching from Post-Impressionists like Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh to the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Many of these works have not toured outside of Buffalo for decades.

“There are a number of these artists where it's not just great works, but the most important works by the artists,” Roberts said. “Those paintings are worth just seeing by themselves, but then to see them in this context of other great works of modern art is really exceptional.”

Midwestern modern

Closer to home, the Elmhurst Art Museum is highlighting what is currently happening in the Midwestern art world via the exhibit “New American Paintings: Midwest Edition.” It showcases more than 400 works by 40 contemporary artists living in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Iowa.

All these artists were drawn together by Elmhurst Art Museum Chief Curator Staci Boris when she was asked to select works to appear in the publication “New American Painting,” which puts out regional editions each year. Boris thought to create a gallery show inspired specifically by her issue of “New American Painting: The 2014 Midwest Edition,” and she was surprised to find out that this was the first time in the publication's 20-year history that a physical exhibit developed as an outgrowth from the publication.

“The exhibition doesn't exactly correspond to the publication,” said Boris, noting that some artists preferred to have more of their recent works on show while others wanted to include pieces that were more representative of their particular style.

Boris was excited to have some site-specific pieces displayed at the Elmhurst Art Museum and the nearby Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House.

“One of the most interesting things about the grouping is that there are traditional paint on canvas works that are very interesting and that really assess and question what it means to make a painting in the 21st century,” Boris said. “But then a number of artists have also moved beyond traditional two-dimensional works and create more sculptural works, more installation works and some have even created animations ... It's a really lively and dynamic exhibition that really shows how artists are pushing boundaries and it's special to show it here especially since the artists are from the Midwest.”

“New American Paintings: Midwest Edition”

<b>Location:</b> Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst, (630) 834-0202 or <a href="http://elmhurstartmuseum.org">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>

<b>General hours:</b> 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday

<b>Exhibit dates:</b> now through Sunday, Aug. 23

<b>Admission:</b> $5; $3 students and seniors; free admission on Friday

<b>Evening Wine and Artist Talks:</b> 6 p.m. Thursday, June 18, July 16 and Aug. 20

<b>“Van Gogh to Pollock: Modern Rebels”</b>

<b>Location:</b> Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee, (414) 224-3200 or <a href="http://mam.org">mam.org</a>

<b>General hours:</b> 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Sunday; extended hours to 8 p.m. Thursday

<b>Exhibit dates:</b> Thursday, June 18, through Sunday, Sept. 20

<b>Admission:</b> $10 normally; $14-$17 for Lakefront Festival of Art from Friday, June 19, through Sunday, July 21

<b>“Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions” </b>

<b>“Degas: At the Track, On the Stage”</b>

<b>Location:</b> Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, (312) 443-3600 or <a href="http://artic.edu">artic.edu</a>

<b>General hours:</b> 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; extended hours to 8 p.m. Thursday

<b>Whistler dates:</b> Saturday, June 20, to Sunday, Sept. 27

<b>Degas dates:</b> Wednesday, July 1, to February 2016

<b>Admission:</b> $20-$23; $14-$17 students and seniors; free admission after 5 p.m. Thursday