The Masur Museum of Art presents the new Treasures of Art Nouveau exhibition. This exhibition will be available for viewing from Thursday, September 5, to Wednesday, November 23. While the exhibit opens on September 5, there is a free public reception the following day from 5 to 7 p.m. with Annemarie Sawkins, PhD.
The Masur Museum is also announcing “Vintage Monroe” Antiques Appraisal Day, held at the museum. This fundraiser is on Saturday, September 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. where three local antique experts will be offering appraisals on personal items for $10 an item.
This exhibition comes from a private collection in Milwaukee and has never before been exhibited outside of its home city. Art Nouveau and its related movement, Arts and Crafts, developed in the late 1800s as a reaction against previously popular academic styles and the heavy ornamentation of the Victorian era. Instead, these movements emphasized handcrafting and design inspired by nature, most notably an appreciation of flowing lines and contours. The exhibition features decorative objects and furniture, sculpture, prints, and paintings from the 18900s-1930s that capture the spirit of this stylistic era and demonstrate how it permeated all types of art and design.
Highlights of this exhibition include glassware and lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany, cameo vases by Emile Galle, European claret jugs, bronze sculptures, wood furniture, and an array of lithographs by Alphonse Mucha, Paul Berthon, Emile Bertrand, and Eugene Grasset among others, plus additional paintings and drawings.