Accidental Genius at Milwaukee Art Museum

If you are in Milwaukee..
come see the feature exhibition at the art museum. The show celebrates a gift to the museum of over 300 works from collector Anthony Petullo. Categorized as 'outsider art,' simply meaning work by self-taught artists working outside the mainstream, the show represents over 50 different artists working throughout the 20th century. Vivid, varied, colorful, obsessive, spiritual, strange, ugly, beautiful. Not a show to miss! Here are some of my favorites:

Cover of exhibition catalogue; detail of The Demoness of Urgency, 1958, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern

The Demoness of Urgency, 1958, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern


Moon Prisoners, 1955, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern


God Created the Heavens and the Earth, 1968, Consuelo Amézcua


untitled, n.d, Måna Lagerholm


untitled, n.d, Madge Gill


Book #6 Elementa, 1994, Anne Grgich


untitled, 1960/63/66, Minnie Evans


Deutschland, Lüneburg, 1992, Johann Garber


Deutschland, Lüneburg (detail), 1992, Johann Garber


Elaborate Bottle Cap Staff, n.d, Mr. Imagination


untitled, n.d, Albert Louden


The Greedies, ca. 1945, Scottie Wilson


Images of Men Strangling Children (detail), n.d, Henry Darger


Blengiglomeneans Displaying their Wings (detail), n.d, Henry Darger



More information and a complete list of artist biographies can be found on the MAM website:
www.mam.org/accidental-genius/



All images courtesy of Accidental Genius exhibition catalogue.

Artist to check out: Taryn Simon

Amazing photographer and investigator.. works from The Innocents, American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, and Contraband are on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum through January 1st, 2012. (Or anywhere else in the world! Find all locations of current exhibitions on her website: www.tarynsimon.com


From American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar:

Great White Shark in Captivity, Million-Gallon Outer Bay,
Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California

The Hoh Rain Forest, Understory and Forest Structure
Olympic National Park, Washington

Death Row Outdoor Recreational Facility, "The Cage"
Mansfield Correctional Institution, Mansfield, Ohio

Dynamo III, Studying Magnetic Fields and Impending Pole Reversal,
University of Maryland, Nonlinear, Dynamics Laboratory
College Park, Maryland



From The Innocents:

Calvin Washinton C&E Motel, Room No. 24, Waco, Texas
Where an informant claimed to have heard Washington confess
Served 13 years of a Life sentence for Capital Murder, 2002



From A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters:


Children of a Ukrainian orphanage



From Nonfiction:

Interior of Fidel Castro's Palace of the Revolution, 2003

Ski Dubai, The fist indoor ski resort in the Middle East, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai

The seperation Wall, 2005. Between Israel and the West Bank.

Maisara, Housewife, Tsunami Survivor.

Dr.Sri. Physician, Tsunami Survivor.



Watch Taryn talk about The Innocents and American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar on Ted:








All images and captions from www.tarynsimon.com



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Milwaukee Art Museum in flight

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