Greater Milwaukee Foundation, in cooperation with UW Press, will release a book on Friday, May 1, entitled “Mary Nohl, Inside and Outside.” The book was written to both shed light on one of Milwaukee’s most famous residents, and to also dispel the myths associated with Nohl’s legacy.
Nohl graduated from the Art Institue of Chicago. After teaching junior high school art classes for a while, Nohl made her art her full time priority. The resulting statues and sculptures, made from cement, stone, and tree trunks filled the yard of her Fox Point home.
She was later labeled as the “Witch of Fox Point.”
Nohl Died in 2001, and left her house and her personal collection to the Kohler Foundation to make sure it would remain intact. She also left her personal estate, valued at $11.3 million, to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Today, the Mary Nohl Foundation helps organizations provide arts for children, supports art centers, and provides scholarships to individual artists.
The book, authored by Nohl’s friend Barbara Manger, offers a comprehensive look into Nohl’s unusual life.
“I am so grateful to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation for funding this book, which is geared for those generations of visitors who peered through Mary’s fence into her wildly decorated yard in awe,” Manger said. “It is meant to bring clarity to the woman whose idiosyncratic art spurred much intrigue and many legends. It also plays tribute to her uniqueness.”
Manger went through Nohl’s diaries and sketches in order to gain insight into the artist’s personal life. It also includes 310 photographs of her life, her artwork and her home.
The book will be on sale in select book stores and on www.Amazon.com for $29.95. All proceeds from the book sale will go to Mary Nohl Collection at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
