Uncrated. Unveiled: A World Class Piece of Art

Since we were leaving for Atlanta out of the Milwaukee airport our  timing allowed a perfect stop at the Milwaukee Art Museum for their November 24th grand opening. After 'months' of a $34 million renovation (10 of that public funding) the once disjointed buildings have had an amazing facelift. Now, a welcoming lakefront atrium entry greets passersby.  A 1000 new works have been added to the more coherent transformed spaces. Gone are the drip pans for that old leaky roof. A lower floor gallery now houses the extensive photo collection from the museum's 'original' opening. 

The stunning Calatrava addition might have increased attendance but now the rest of the collections can truly be appreciated in a 'new' light. To celebrate what is being touted as the newly 'reimagined' galleries the Member Only grand unveiling weekend celebration talks offered by the experts who made it happen. Along with numerous docents available at the 'Ask me' buttons, a Photo Booth for a memory pic, Make and Take party hats, special interactive on site installation, painted inflatable sculptures, art cutout photo op and of course music. 

Huge crates greeted visitors in the foyer marked 'Uncrated Unveiled.'

Each paying visitor for the public grand opening ( in other words, not museum members) received a mini crate with a finger puppet of a famous artist. I was super jealous that my membership entry didn't include that promotional. Too clever. If you weren't into finger puppetry, the 4" soft doll has a magnet in the back of his head so he can be a fridge magnet.

Claude Monet

Frank Lloyd Wright

Georgiea O'Keefe

Pablo Picasso

August Rodin

 You know I have this thing about dolls but Natureman was relieved I wasn't bringing home another toy.

Any how we thoroughly enjoyed our docent led tour of the museum's newest photographic exhibit of Larry Sultan's : Here and Now. Our docent was the curator who actually put this exhibit together.

This blowup photo covered the expanse of the glass entry. We were treated to over 200 photographs of Sultan's works from his 35 year career of both collaborative and solo documentary exhibits. " One of the most influential photographers of his generation, Larry Sultan explores ideas of home, family, belonging, façade, and storytelling in evocative pictures that challenged photographic conventions. Six major bodies of work make up this presentation: Evidence (1975–77),collaboratively with Mike Mandel; Swimmers (1978–82); Pictures from Home (1983–92); The Valley (1997–2003); Homeland (2006–09); and Sultan's editorial work."

Pictures from home collage

Actual Sultan  billboard with many laborious hours  re-piecing it...

“One of photography’s shrewdest observers
 of American life.” — Wall Street Journal

And in the last room named  "Study Hall"  the visitor could cyber search Sultan's works and view a film of Sultan explaining his work. 
Sultan's: Here and Now will continue until January 24th. 

I know I will have to leave the End of the Rainbow Valley again as I need a lot more time to explore and enjoy Milwaukee's sparkling renovated gem on Lake Michigan, the improved Milwaukee Museum of Art.