We're used to seeing the big names in Milwaukee Art Museum's Calatrava expansion, but some of the lesser-known artists have fueled the most interesting shows.
Think, for example of Martin Ramirez's astonishing works on paper or the gallery's latest inhabitant, "Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945," which runs through May 4.
It's refreshing to see an exhibition -- nay, a fine exhibition -- of 20th century photography and see very few recognizable names and very few "landmark" images.
It's also a little disconcerting and encouraging. If you're a denizen of art museums, you might get a little cocky about what you've seen and what you know.
A show like this one will cut you down to size.
And cut is the appropriate word, too, because in some of the most engaging work in this large show, nothing is what it seems. There are photomontages, collage and other visual trickery to keep the viewer guessing and second-guessing.
But the post-war cut and paste and experimentalism of the likes of Evzen Markalous and Jaromir Funke gives way to more "traditional" images of "Modern Living" -- with its iconization of modernity (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's dizzying "Radio Tower Berlin, 1928" is a highlight of this section) -- and "New Women -- New Men" -- with its similarly iconic 1931 image of Leni Riefenstahl, all sweat and strength, by Hungarian-American photographer Martin Munkacsi, and Lotte Jacobi's "Klaus and Erika Mann," which captured Germany's stylish "androgyny chic."
The exhibition -- organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. -- also takes us through the surrealist movement, photography as propaganda, landscapes and it all comes full circle as photomontage returns with the return of war.
Regardless of their style or their use of photomontage, all of these 170 or so images capture the adventurous spirit of a century that was all about change and, sadly, all about war, too.
MAM, as usual, has a host of events related to "Foto" and you can see them all at the museum's Web site (there's a link below).
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
