New MAM exhibit celebrates a decade of prints

The Milwaukee Art Museum’s latest exhibition, Framing a Decade: Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings 2001 to 2011, will open today in the Koss Gallery and show until April 3. The exhibit highlights a selection of 50 drawings, etchings, lithographs and woodcuts from the Museum’s prints and drawings collection.
“This exhibition highlights the richness and breadth of some of the finest and rarest prints and drawings the Museum has acquired in the past decade,” said Mary Weaver Chapin, associate curator of prints and drawings. “Framing a Decade is an invigorating, visual experience of some of the world’s most famous artists.”
In addition to featuring the works of artists from across the globe, the exhibition also celebrates the ten-year anniversary of the Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion opening to the public, and honors the donors and Museum members who helped make the addition and print acquisitions possible, Chapin said.
“Many thanks go out to countless individuals and organizations for the works on view in this magnificent exhibition of prints and drawings,” said Daniel Keegan, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. “The entire Museum extends its gratitude to the generous gifts and bequests over the years that make exhibitions like this possible. With the approaching ten-year anniversary of the Santiago Calatrava–designed Quadracci Pavilion, this decade-long snapshot of prints and drawings could not be a better complement to our celebration.”
In the past ten years, the Museum has acquired major gifts from the Maurice and Esther Leah Ritz and the Warrington Colescott collections, and has received a recent donation of over 500 prints from the Sam Francis Foundation. Artists represented in the collection include: Callot, Rembrandt, Gauguin, Klimt, Nolde, Kirchner, Picasso, Schiele, Francis, LeWitt, Bruce, Frankenthaler, Nauman, and more.
Chapin will host an opening reception and Gallery Talk tonight from 5:30 to 8 p.m.