WI Day 3 - Dazzling Gardens, Disability Art, and Dairy
Today started with a nice homemade breakfast with my mom’s friend Jeannie, her partner Chuck, and her son Paul. Most days I would skip breakfast, go out and find a local coffee shop, and head out for the day, but this was a nice change of pace, and it meant a lot to get to start the day with good food and good people.
After a lovely breakfast, I bid Jeannie and Milwaukee farewell and set sail for the state capital and largest city in WI: Madison. I didn’t really know much about Madison, but I had assumed that Milwaukee was the biggest city in the state and Madison would be more of a small college town, so I was pleasantly surprised by how big and bustling it was there. It doesn’t hurt that the University of Wisconsin- Madison is the largest public university in the state, one of the largest schools in the country, and also casually the employer of over 21,000 Wisconites making it also a pillar of the whole state’s economy. So I guess it makes sense that Madison might be slightly more stacked than the average college town.
One of my friends from my freshman year dorm had grown up spending time in Madison (and now goes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School), so he gave me a list of top things to do around the city which I was very appreciative of. First on his list was the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, 16 acres of public gardens operated by the City of Madison and open to the public for free.
The gardens really surpassed my expectations and blew me away. Everything was vibrant and jam-packed with natural wonder, and the fact that this was just a free spot for the community to come and reflect really warmed my heart. My first stop within the Olbrich estate, was the Bolz Conservatory, a 10,000 sq. ft. greenhouse housing over 750 different species of plants, mostly tropical or sub-tropical. For the second time this week, it felt like I had stepped through a portal and gone from Wisconsin to the middle of the rainforest which was not a theme I was expecting to emerge during my time in the state. There was something incredible and exotic around every corner, and some of the plants were so foreign from the flora I’m used to that it really was like walking around on another planet.
My favorite plant was the Zombi Palm, partly because of it’s crazy name and partly because of its distinctive needle formation around the trunk that seems to swirl and fan out in ways that reminded horticulturalists of voodoo doll needles.
Beyond the exquisite wildlife, the conservatory also had some pretty spectacular man-made features including a rushing waterfall and an ethereal glass sculpture that was inspired by but not actually made by Chihuly.
As I was writing this post, I realized that I never actually took a picture of the conservatory from the outside, but it has a really impressive pyramid shape that is quite striking, so I thought it would be a disservice to not highlight that and found this photo online:
Leaving the Conservatory, there was an incredible, shady arbor walk leading to the outdoor gardens which looked like something straight out of a fairytale for extra natural wonder.
The first of the outdoor gardens I explored was the Sunken Garden, which was an English style garden enclosed in shrubberies. The real centerpiece though was a beautiful 80 ft long reflecting pool with rustic stonework, elegant sculptures, and placid waters. It was wildly more pleasant than the adjective “sunken” usually implies.
While the pool stole the show, the flowers around the sunken garden were no slouches adding charming bursts of color wherever they popped up.
One really fun touch by the sunken gardens was a plant kaleidoscope, which featured a prismatic viewer trained on a pot full of thoughtfully curated flowers and succulents. The pot could spin so as you looked through the viewer you could get the classic psychedelic kaleidoscope effect without any pesky glass beads.
Next up I trounced through the Meadow Garden, a garden carefully maintained to look wild and untouched by man. It had an unkempt prettiness to it, with wildflowers popping up wherever they damn well pleased to add spots of brightness and beauty to the untamed greenery.
Next, I visited the Wildflower and Rock Gardens which featured vibrant flowers and resilient alpine plants all circling around stunning rock and water features that added real character and variety to the settings. Each section of the estate felt so unique, it was really impressive to realize that it was all one property.
Next up was the Thai Pavilion and Garden, which was one of my favorite parts of the entire Olbrich. First of all, you have to cross an arched bridge over a rushing creek just to get to this garden so there’s a bit of pageantry when you first see the pavilion from the top of the bridge. Even if you know you’re going to see a pavilion, I don’t think the average first-time visitor can really be prepared for just how lavish an ornately decorated it is, so that first reveal as you get closer packs a pretty big wow factor. The pavilion, or sala, is based on a pretty common structure in Thailand used for shade and shelter from rain but with grander decorations more reminiscent of Thai temples than the average sala. The pavilion was built in Thailand by master craftsmen and artisans using wood, gold leaf, and lacquer, and it has a mark of authenticity from the royal family in Thailand making it one of only four authentic Thai pavilions in the world to exist outside of Thailand. You might wonder, “This is incredibly cool, but why is it in Madison, Wisconsin?” and apparently it’s because the pavilion was constructed as a gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison by a joint effort from the Thai Government and the university’s Thai Alumni Association. Apparently, UWM has one of the largest Thai populations of any college in the US which is a fascinating fun fact, that I’d love to know more of the history behind.
The pavilion is also adorned with beautiful wildlife and sculptures, and the closer you get to it, it only gets more impressive as you notice every little lovingly made detail in the design work. I was astonished to learn that the whole massive thing was built without any nails or screws, and it’s all just held together by expert woodwork. That’s bonkers.
There was also another reflecting pool by the pavilion with hundreds of smooth rocks lining the bottom giving it a really unusual and captivating texture. Something about the way those rocks interacted with the water and the sunlight, almost made the surface of the pool look like a painting rather than something that was actually physically right in front of you.
After my brief Thai sojourn, I strolled through the Perennial Garden and Birch Walk which featured hundreds of native birch trees and vibrant perennially blooming flowers. This had more of a classic garden vibe compared to some of the more exotic gardens, but it was very serene and beautiful nonetheless.
Some local fauna popped up among the flora including this pudgy little toad and a very stately Monarch butterfly:
Next up was the Rose Garden, which featured more inventive curation than I was expecting from something so classic. The garden features shrub roses which are more resilient and adaptable to harsh Wisconsin climates, in addition to lending themselves nicely to creative and visually stunning topiary designs. The roses are accompanied by other colorful flowering shrubs, a rustic barn, and stone structures built from local limestone, including an impressive 30 ft. tall tower.
My favorite part of the garden was the central water fountain which had a sleek Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Geometric design that looked particularly striking from the top of the stone tower:
Last but not least was the eclectic Event Garden which has a little bit of everything as well as plenty of wide-open spaces to host events. In particular, it’s become a popular spot for wedding ceremonies, but it’s hard to imagine any event that wouldn’t benefit from the scenery:
Leaving the gardens, there was one more fairy-tale-esque archway to pass through which really seemed like the only way to go
After the gardens, I made my way to downtown Madison for the rest of the day’s adventures. Madison has a pretty interesting city layout because all the main streets radiate out from a circular road going around the State Capitol building so basically if you look behind you from anywhere downtown you’ll see the grand capitol building in the background.
When I stopped to get lunch by coincidence, I happened to park in front of the St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center. I can’t say that I personally have a lot of fond memories of Catholicism but I gotta hand it to them, they know how to make a pretty building:
For lunch, I went to a local favorite burger joint called Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry, which does not in fact serve dumplings. The name is actually a reference to a character named Dottie Dumpling who was a fat lady in a traveling circus and either appeared in a short by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or an old British pantomime depending on who you ask. Even knowing the origin of the name doesn’t really tell you why it’s the name of a burger restaurant, so the name really sets the tone for the goofy and playful setting that is the restaurant. It was originally a jewelry and antique store in Iowa, but the original owner, Jeff Stanley, decided the world needed more hamburgers than jewelry so he relocated to Madison and started slinging patties, but he did keep some antiques to decorate the place with to give it a real offbeat charm. Even before you walk in, the sign out front really let you know that it was not a place that was taking anything but burgers and cheese seriously.
While I was there I had a super funny and fun waitress, and she suggested I get the Pub Burger so that’s what I did. It came with Muenster cheese, bacon, peppercorn aioli, and onion jam on a homemade seeded bun. It was definitely different flavor-wise than what I might have picked out on my own, but I was not led astray and somehow everything came together for an absolutely delicious, cheesy, and satisfying burger. One bite in and I understood why this place is such a beloved local institution. To wash everything down, I got the Ale Asylum Pantheon Brown Ale, a rich and powerful special brown ale that the local brewery makes just for Dotty’s.
After lunch, my next big stop for the day was UWM’s Chazen Museum of Art, which is the second-largest art museum in the state. The Chazen features two buildings with a very sleek minimalist design that makes it easy to not realize just how massive the collection really is until you realize you’ve been there for hours.
The museum won me over right away with a large special exhibition basically designed to steal my heart. The exhibit was called Drawn to Art and featured highlights from the Harvey A. Stevens International Collection of Art by People with Developmental Disabilities featuring over 200 works by artists with disabilities from over 15 countries! It was amazing, and I think even people who don’t have family connections to people with developmental disabilities would have a tough time not falling in love with this exhibit and being blown away by how legitimately great all this art was. I think exhibits like this are really important for making a powerful statement to people who might not otherwise interact with the disability community that you should never make assumptions about what people can and can’t do. Creativity and artistry aren’t really traits that are dependent on intellect, social skills, physical ability, or any other areas which might be a challenge for these artists, so the exhibition really highlights the absurdity of assuming that just because someone faces a challenge with some facet of their life (regardless of if they have a disability or not) they should be written off in all other areas, which is sadly too often the case for people like these artists.
This surrealist drawing of dogs was used as the intro to the exhibit and it’s a blown up version of one of the pieces seen later called Dogs by Geroge Wilson
A small thing that meant a lot to me about the curation was that everything was organized by themes, so it always put more emphasis on the art and different artists’ interpretations than on their disabilities. I think this helped set the right tone that every piece was selected because of its artistic merit and not simply because the artist had a disability of some kind.
The first section was all works of art depicting flowers and plant life in a vibrant and eclectic mix of styles and mediums.
My favorites here were, in my opinion, two particularly jaw-dropping pieces. To the left is an expressive, Georgia O’Keeffe-esque crayon and colored pencil drawing of flowers up close by a young artist with Down Syndrome from England named Matthew Boyd-Gravell. To the right is an gorgeous scene of flowers made entirely with colored thread using a traditional Taiwanese stitching technique by an artist named Tin-Che who was only 16 which is mind-blowing!
Next up were a series of portraits. Some of the portraits were impressively realistic, but I tended to like the more idiosyncratic and abstract portraits more, because I feel like they gave you as much of a window into the artist’s mind as their subject’s. My favorites were: an impressionistic pencil drawing called Mystery Lady by Nikole Heusman right above a particular starry portrait; charmingly stylized self portraits by Sylvia Lauer and Heather Jones; a dramatic tempera painting enigmatically entitled Bad Boy by Danny Frownfelter; a portrait of a man named Allen (whom the little card notes is tall and slim which really comes through) by an Australian artist who just goes by Robert; a fascinating piece that I really like but took no notes on so I’m not really sure who did it or even how it was made sadly; and a very lovingly done portrait of a young Michael Jackson by an artist named Jean Wilson.
Next up were some curatorial stations explaining a bit more about the various disabilities some of the artists have, resources that are available, and what people who like the art can do to help out. The thing I really liked here though was that there adorable photos of babies with Down Syndrome, which always reminds me of when my cousin Jason, who has DS and autism, was that small.
Back to the art, next up were a series of pieces on transportation and everyday objects. My favorites included: an incredible linoleum block print of a steam ship by a German artist named Markus Wipfler which felt like it would have really fit right in with other German Expressionist prints; an almost Rothko-y painting of a crosswallk called Road by Billy Borgerd; a print of an airplane by an unknown artist which has gained a sort of haunting quality to with the way it’s faded; a richly detailed drawing by Roger Claffin of a car accident he witnessed in the 80s; and a painting of a hospital bed by Renata Barnes which is really lonely and evocative in a lovely way.
Next up were pieces depicting various animals ranging from the domestic to the exotic.
My favorites of the animal pieces included: a beautiful watercolor by Lia-Ning Chung right above a strikingly colored painting of a wolf by Alicia Porter; an incredibly composed linoleum block print of birds by a Norwegian artist named Herleik Kristiansen, who’s actually risen to quite a bit of acclaim in his native country; a richly detailed monotype print of a boy riding an elephant by a Belgian artist with Down Syndrome named Raymond Bauwens that was made by painting with ink on glass and then pressing the glass onto paper to transfer the image; and a delightfully bustling painting called The Coop of the White Chickens by an artist name Sebastian.
Next up were some landscapes and city scenes that had really impressive scope to them. Again there was a real variety of style and mediums with very serene nature scenes next to hectic city streets.
My favorites here included: a hypnotic pen and ink drawing called Cityscape by a Danish artist named Erling Nielsen; a crazy realistic watercolor by German artist Klaus Hoffman painted from memory of a house the artist he used to walk by; an absolutely stunning Japanese print by an artist I sadly didn’t write down the name of; an ethereal water color called Memories by a South African artist named Suzanne Vietri; a dynamic painting by Phil Porter of the Madison State Capitol building called The Biggest House My Great-Grandfather Ever Built which is both sweet and true because his great grandfather really was a famous architect who helped design and build the capitol; and three absolutely gorgeous watercolors of dusky seascapes by Danish artists Peatar Nielsen and Annelise Nielsen.
Lastly was one of my favorite pieces in the whole exhibition which I sadly have no information about other than that it’s an incredible and mind-bending blend of nature and rural scenes swirling in and out of each other in way that reminds me of zen and M.C. Escher in equal measure.
After the special exhibition, I started making my way through the Chazen’s permanent collections. First up was the museum’s extensive collection of prints.
This started out with a gallery showcasing works that were entirely in black and white to really highlight the artists’ linework and sense of depth. My favorites included: a satirical print by Raymond Louis Gloeckler called Victory Dickie depicting a very gargoyle-y Richard Nixon; a sprawling mass of text and diagrams by Joseph Beuys called Art is a Mosquito with a Thousand Wings; an ethereal abstract composition by Bernar Venet called Undetermined Line; and an incredibly vivid print of camouflaging zebras by Norwegian artist Simen Johan called Untitled #182.
Leaving the black and white prints, visitors were greeted with an explosion of color in the form of a series of psychedelic abstractions by Richard Anuszkiewicz that just seem to almost float above the paper:
Next up was a special exhibit dedicated entirely Japanese prints from the publisher Shozaburo Watanabe, who was one of the first 20th Century Japanese print manufacturers to make a concentrated effort to take Japanese art to foreign markets. While there was for sure a commercial element to Watanabe’s prints, he never skimped on the actual artistry and each print was positively stunning. The artists really excelled at using gentle colors and careful line-work to create soft, sumptuous windows onto scenes of Japanese landscapes and daily life.
My personal favorites of this fantastic collection included: a trudging scene of people crossing a Bridge in the Snow by Takahashi Shotei; a dreamlike scene also by Takahashi Shotei called Spring Passage that imbues a woman walking home at night with haunting elegance; a minimalist but striking portrait of two goofy bird boys by Ide Gakusui; a colored woodblock of poppy flowers by Ohara Shoshon with really dramatic colors; and four jaw-dropping vistas by Kawase Hasui entitled A Fine Winter’s Sky Miyajima, Evening Snow at Terajima Village, Snow at the Golden Pavilion, and Clearing After a Snowfall on Mt. Fuj which all make masterful use of the medium to depict varying intensities of snowfall ranging from biting to serene. I don’t know how he got the textures of the snow just so perfectly, but it really made those pieces stand out to me.
Last but not least for the Prints Galleries was a collection of protest art from the 60s and 70s. Many of these pieces were by Wisconsin artists and while there’s quite a bit of stylistic variation there all joined by a shared sense of anger and dismay with the Vietnam War and social conditions at home.
My Favorites here included: the devastatingly simple Hell No I Won’t Go by William Weege; a more surrealist woodcut Alfred Sessler depicting war as a strange beastly creature; an intensely expressive woodcut by Robert Overman Hodgell called The Peace Feeler which shows a man holding up a rifle in one hand and crushing a dove in the other; a lithograph by Russell T. Gordon called April 4, 1968 which uses nightmarish imagery to depict the anguish of the Black Community after MLK’s assassination; an etching byWarrington Colescott called In Birmingham Jail which depicts scenes of depravity and police violence with a hint of cartoonishness that hints at the absurdity of a corrupt system; another print by Warrington Colescott called Out My Garden Window which is almost beautiful until you realize it’s also depicting police violence against protestors; a spooky but powerful woodcut by Mary Alice Wimmer called Napalm, Fragments which highlights the victims war leaves behind; another densely layered print by Warrington Colescott called Patrioticks which sets its satirical sights on American racism and the KKK; and lastly a woodcut by Robert Overman Hodgell called Favorite Son depicting the interchangeableness of most politicians as empty vessels to be propped up by rich businessmen.
After the prints, it was on to some galleries of decorative arts. One thing that blew me away because I’d never really seen anything like it before was this display of Russian Icons. Russian icon paintings depict scenes from religious stories and the tradition goes back to at least the first century A.D.! The pieces in this display however are mostly from between the 17th-19th centuries when Russian Icon painters started blending traditional styles routed in Russian Orthodoxy with influences from Catholic Rennaissance painters. Each Icon generally starts with a square of wood which is then painted with tempera and finished with either gilding, inlaid metal, or a combination to create a finished product that is really ornate and captivating.
While the Icons stole the show a bit for me, one of the other incredible things in this decorative art gallery was a massive display of ceramic drinking vessels that were all so staggeringly intricate and refined. While many of the pieces were incredibly beautiful, my favorite was obviously a stein in the shape of a big fat guy drinking from his own little stein. Now that’s art.
Leaving the decorative art gallery, I made way up a floor to the contemporary art wing. This floor started off with a bang as I was greeted by this insanely sleek and dynamic sculpture by Xu Bing called Phoenix. The sculpture is made out of 3D-printed Polyamide 12 nylon, a soft, flexible, yet durable synthetic polymer, which gives the piece a very clean modern aesthetic that is really nicely juxtaposed with the more classical construction and stylization of the mythological creature being sculpted. There’s also a cool meta-element of the material being a more recyclable kind of plastic and the phoenix being a symbol of rebirth and reuse. Nicely done, Xu Bing, you sly fox.
For the first gallery of contemporary art, my favorites included: a collection of long stretched out psychedelic prints by an artist named Judy Pfaff which reminded me of the ending from 2001: A Space Odyssey; a piece by Tom Uttech called Nin Mamakadendam featuring birds swarming around a chopped-down forest in a scene that is strangely both really pretty and sort of apocalyptic; a colorful dreamlike riff on both surrealism and medieval paintings by Robert Barnes called Reclining Knight; a gorgeous day-glo scene by Sandro Chia called Horseman in Front of the Sea; a creepy and humorous piece by T. L. Solien called The Seduction of Innocence (a reference to a famous paper that comic books for corrupting the youth) featuring cartoon animals transforming into nightmarish creatures; a strikingly composed triptych of warped portraits by Francis Bacon; a Pop-Art-y riff on the Crucifixion by Mark Mulhern; a colorful cubist piece by a painter named Gronk (it’s hard as New Englander to not picture a big dumb football goof when you hear that name) called Fragments of a Landscape; and a swirling 3-D abstract construction by Sam Gilliam sort of enigmaticaally called The Generation Below Them.
The next gallery was filled with some of my favorite early 20th century modernists. I always love these pieces because you can see the hints of more traditional stylistic techniques but then the artists just choose to go in their own weird directions and I love them for that. Highlights for me were: an ethereal collage by Joseph Cornell intended as a sort of ode to German Romanticism; another Cornell collage called Cerubino: Prism Version Variant that is like a bridge between abstract art and scientific diagrams; a humorous painting by René Magritte in which the image of a naked woman floats in a bottle of wine cheekily entitled Inspiration; a 3-dimensional working of the same Woman in a Bottle image also by Magritte; a dramatic print of eyes, hands, and blobs of color by Joán Miró very fittingly called Homage to Miró; a goofily enchanting iron sculpture of a Cubist woman by Pablo Picasso; a sketch also by Picasso where you can see him working through how to make the head of the woman in the sculpture; and an impressionistically blobby watercolor of a nude woman by Peter Agostini.
At the center of this gallery was a delightfully silly sculpture of the Roman god Janus by my boy Max Ernst. Janus is often depicted as having two heads, but rarely is he portrayed as having an owl face on one side, a duck face on the other side, no arms, and a tortoise shell and rocks as genitalia, so that’s all Ernst’s out there imagination.
The next gallery was all Pop-Art which featured lots of bright colors and familiar forms in not-so-familiar settings. My favorites included: Jim Dine rendition of the Madison skyline entirely done in different mechanical tools; a jarringly colored screenprint of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol; an amusingly confrontational comic book hand by Roy Lichtenstein; a really funny collage by Claes Oldenburg which through clever juxtaposition shows how formally similar Constantin Brancusi’s sculpture the Kiss is to a giant Clothespin; a study by Tom Wesselmann for one of his trademark pop-art pinups; and a Roy Lichtenstein take on Monet’s paintings of Rouen Cathedral which does really neatly replicate the effect of looking perfectly like the cathedral from a distance while being really hard to make out up close.
Some of my the coolest pieces to see here were preparatory sketches and diagrams for large scale environmental pieces by the late husband and wife powerhouse, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their most famous artworks were always intended to be temporary so sketches like these and photographs from when the pieces were up are often all that remain. Their art tends to play with defamiliarizing familiar settings, using the environment as a giant canvas, and highlighting the simple beauty of colorful fabrics. The sketches here were from a project where they installed fake wooden storefronts with windows wrapped in colored fabric around New York City and a hugely ambitious project where they surrounded several small islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay in a floating pink fabric essentially turning the bay into one giant abstract painting.
Next up it was back to more contemporary pieces with highlights for me being: a trippy abstract piece by Richard Artschwager called Journal II which seems to show planks of wood melting into a black and white mass as they turn a corner; a haunting and dramatic silhouette of a slave falling off a ship into the Atlantic by the incredibleKara Walker; a piece by Robert Cumming called Small Constellation which really messes with your head because it looks so much light the glass is sitting on a three-dimensional counter but it’s all just one painting; a Pop-y contemporary riff on Hercules by Sandro Chia called Boots Pride; a truly bizarre piece by Jim Dine that for whatever reason juxtaposes a skeleton, Pinnochio, and Lenin with little crucifixes; a bright blend of M.C. Escher and architectural blueprints by Al Held called Bruges III; a creepy collection of different ink drawings of creatively grotesque monsters by Dimitri Prigov called Bestiarii Series; and a simple but strangely charming still life of a lightbulb byJasper Johns.
Interspersed with all these two-dimensional modern and contemporary pieces were a number of wild and impressive sculptures. My favorites of these were: Michael McMillen’s floating sculpture of a camp in the Dominican Republic called Pico Escondido; an explosion of whirling abstract forms and colors by Judy Pfaff called Honey Bee for Holly Solomon; a shockingly lifelike painted bronze sculpture of a reclining nude woman by John Louis DeAndrea; a dramatic abstract sculpture made out of painted wood by Louise Nevelson called Black Wedding Cake; a striking etched ceramic vessel by Donald Reitz very matter of factly called Oval Cylinder; a colorfully cartoonish cubist sculpture by Jean Dubuffet called Bust with Hatchet Face; a stoneware piece by Joán Miró that looks like a totem from a lost ancient civilization; and a sweetly surreal assemblage of wood and stone by Varujan Boghosian called The Offering.
While most of these pieces were quite beautiful, two pieces really stood out for being downright horrifying: Jim Dine’s giant sculpture of a wooden skull on a rickety metal contraption called The Plow and a mono-print on handmade paper by the legendary director David Lynch depicting what looks like a small child giving birth. While I love almost all of David Lynch’s movies, and I’m no stranger to his particular brand of nightmare imagery, this was one was pretty alarming even for me.
Next up, I moved on to the African Art wing of the museum, which featured both modern and ancient pieces from around the continent. I loved seeing the blend of contemporary pieces because I think too often African art gets treated as “primitive” rather than something that is still vital and continuing to evolve and change with new generations of artists. There were all kinds of media on display, but the sculptural and craft-based art really stood out to me. Highlights for me included: a sculpture of an Igbo Guardian Figure from early 20th century Nigeria (my favorite thing I learned about this guy is that priests would dress him up for special events which is really sweet); a gorgeously carved Kola-nut Bowl in the form of a chicken with Mother and Child by contemporary Nigerian sculptor Lamidi Olonade Fakeye; a celebratory and crazy intricate mask in the shape of the water spirit, Mami Wata, made for elaborate masquerade dance competitions in the Côte d'Ivoire; an impressive relief depicting a legend about the city Òsògbó and its river goddess Òsunmade made from hammered aluminum by the artist Asiru Olatunde; a carved Cameroonian Male "Child-Caller" Figure which a pregnant woman would carry around with her and paint and clothe herself as a ritual to have a male child; a stunning elaborate Ghanaian coffin in the shape of an eagle by Eric Adjetey Anang; Dance Staff used in masquerades by the Kuyu People of the Congo who would wear a long robe in which the head of the staff would poke out while the dancer below would manipulate it with the staff below to give the appearance of a larger than life character; and an intricately beaded Royal Crown with a bird on top and really cute eyes poking out of it to symbolize watchful ancestors worn by rulers of the Yorùbá People in Nigeria.
My absolute favorite pieces in this wing were an excellent carved wooden Goli Dance Mask from the Côte d'Ivoire which is what Herbie Hancock is wearing on the cover of his influential Headhunters album, and a knockout contemporary piece called Old Used Torn Towel by El Anatsui who carefully cut, dyed, and incised native African hardwoods to create a texture reminiscent of an old worn out of piece of his native Ghana’s celebrated Kente cloth as not to lingering scars of Colonialism, so the piece is both very technically impressive and symbolically rich. I just loved it.
Hopping continents, the next wing dedicated to art from Asia. For East Asian art, the walls were all adorned with really lovely prints and delicately painted silk scrolls from China and Japan (sorry Korea). My favorites here included: the beautifully minimalist Landscape with Trees and Houses by Qi Baishi; a lush and lovely watercolor by Wu Yifeng of the view returning from Mt. Emei; and four spectacular prints by Kawanabe Kyosai that are so shockingly kinetic and violent that it’s wild to realize they’re all from the 19th century and not from a contemporary manga. Just look at that dude getting his face sliced off in the bottom right, it’s such a crazy mix of gruesome imagery and top-notch artistic craft that it just perfectly my jam.
One really cool contemporary piece nestled among the older Asian works on paper was this breathtaking photograph by Yao Lu called Cranes Squawking on the Deserted Hill designed to look at first glance like a traditional Chinese landscape painting. It definitely made me do a double-take.
Amid the works on paper were some fantastic traditional and modern ceramics and decorative carvings. My favorites were: this richly detailed Chinese plate and vase from the 1500s; a Cizhou-ware ceramic Tiger with a landscape painting on its back that looks really Pop-y but is actually from the late 12th Century (!); small decorative Japanese Carvings of the Buddha looking awfully jolly; and a display of super sleek Chinese vases and bowls that largely date back at to the 18th-19th century despite appearing very contemporary in their minimalist sheen.
My favorite of these ceramic pieces was this dynamic earthenware Spirit Wall from 1567. The insanely detailed tiles interlock to create a scene of powerful dragons flying around, and it would have been placed near the front entrance of a temple to ward off evil spirits. I know that if I was a demon, I'd be pretty intimidated by those dragons.
While most of the Asian art was from China and Japan, Southeast Asia did get some pretty representation as well. Highlights for me were: a 19th century Indian watercolor on a paper and gold leaf called the Megha Malhar Raga from a series called the Ragamala which depicts illustrations of various Indian musical tradition; an elaborate gilded sculpture from 13th or 14th century Nepal called Arapacana Manjusri; and a series of highly detailed Relief fragments from 2-3rd century Indian temples.
Next up came more modern and contemporary galleries. The first room I entered featured wonderfully macabre and surrealist pieces by different Mid-western artists. These pieces have a real sense of both horror and Americana which made it feel all the more fitting that works by David Lynch were just on the other side of the museum. Highlights for me included: a less than fanciful depiction of a hideous woodland creature spewing out water called Orphan by Fred Stonehouse; a very Texas-Chainsaw Massacre depiction of a cannibalistic family barbecue by David H. Becker called Empty Every Night; a painting by Aaron Bohrod of a stone sculpture covered in tangled seed-pods to look like Medusa; a heartbreaking painting by Sylvia Fein called Lady in a Cage; a very Dali-esque painting by Marshall Glasier called Still Life with View of Madison, Wisconsin (personally I haven’t seen any giant tools since being here, but it’s interesting that he’s the second painter to associate machinery and the Madison skyline); and a sweeter painting by George Tooker showing a couple’s embrace seamlessly melding into the landscape.
My favorite painter I encountered in this gallery was a very fittingly named painter named John Wilde (technically it’s pronounced like “will-dee”, but his work seems more of “wild”). His pieces are so strange and dark, but also very matter of fact in their own way so he feels like a weird mix of Edward Hopper and Dali. Some standouts included: an oil painting of a woman standing in front of a nightmare landscape called A Near Miss next to a painting of a giant-headed man holding up a gun called Exhibiting the Weapon; a scene of a lonely farmhouse with a woman just standing Naked on the porch (and a spooky ghostlike face screaming in the back doorway) called My Grandparents; and a particularly surreal dreamscape called A Tribute to February 11.
One painting though, innocuously called With Friends, really stood for being off the wall gonzo. If you’ve ever thought to yourself “Gee this art is okay but where’s the lactating women sitting on giant crabs?” well John Wilde’s got you covered
At the center of this gallery were too impressive but also fairly surreal sculptural pieces. To the left is Martha Glowacki’s My Arcadia which sort of riffs on curiosity cabinets with ghostly imaginary trees displayed in an ornate wooden cabinet, and to the right is an enigmatic little wooden assemblage of found and sculpted ephemera called Extrapolation 128/10: One is Reality to the Other's Reflection by Walter Hamady (the skeleton might look a little ruder than the artist intended because that’s actually just the reflection of light that happened to be there at crotch level for the little guy while I was taking the photo not a part of the piece of itself).
Next up was a room full of more international contemporary art, which was all really vibrant and dynamic. Highlights for me were: a trippy photographic collage called Infanta y Carlos III by the Cuban artist duo Liudmila + Nelson; a day-glo blend of collage and oil painting by Willie Bester called Untitled (Township Scene); a weirdly charming series of ink drawings of rhinoceroses by William Kentridge cal Il Communicato N. 81; a fantastical action scene by Tenmyouya Hisashi called Baku (Mythological Chimera); a stunningly intricate acrylic ink drawing in response to the environmental crisis caused by the 2011 earthquakes called Meltdown by Ikeda Manabu; a series of architectural collages by Nicola López called Concentration City; and some really funky collaged characters called Adwoa and Yaa by an American artist named Rashaad Newsome.
One of the most impressive pieces that I couldn’t even fit in one photo was a monumental ink on paper piece by Xu Bing called Ten Thousand Trees.
Throughout these galleries there were some really elegant contemporary sculptures. My favorites were: a shockingly lifelike stone-ware sculpture of a giant rabbit by Beth Cavener called L'Amante; a mind-bending collection of twisting blown glass by Andy Paiko called Optic Twist Screen smartly positioned in front of a window looking out over the city; and a mesmerizing abstract piece by Naum Gabo made from carefully arranged threads called Linear Construction in Space Number 2.
Next up was a small room dedicated to the works of Alexander Calder. Calder is probably most well known for his abstract hanging kinetic sculpture, but the room also showcased his abilities as a print maker and painter, with the large abstract face painting Happy as Larry (left) being a real stand out.
Next up were a few galleries full of early 20th century works featuring a mix of stranger modernist works and more traditional landscapes and portraits. My favorites included: a weird lithograph of a farmhand bathing himself by Grant “American Gothic” Wood that was initially deemed too pornographic to be displayed despite lacking practically any sexuality; a gorgeous impressionist portrait by Louis Ritman called Pink and Blue; a strange cartoonish scene of a nautical kidnapping called The Abduction by Karl Hofer; a pretty pastel street scene by Vasili Nikitich Kuchumov called The Admiralty Fountain; a slightly Cubist rendering of a Soviet Cable Factory by Nikolai Alexandrovich Ionin; a smoky painting of a train station by the mononymic Russian painter Finageev called The Colliery Terminus; a powerful painting of a farmer and his children in the field by John Steuart Curry called Our Good Earth; a sort of impish oil painting of a Woman Dressing and not looking too thrilled with the painter by George Kars; a cool-colored peaceful scene called Spring Plowing by Dale Nichols; a dazzling impressionist painting of the Provincetown Waterfront by Reynolds Beal (what an old-timey name); a painting of the fight of the titans from Greek mythology by Koloman Moser that is as bright and colorful as the subject matter is grisly; a lovely nude sketch by Aristide Maillot; an almost mythical scene of a larger than life man emerging from corn stalks by John Steuart Curry; a twisty modernist beach scene by Thomas Hart Benton; a sleek painting almost-Cubist painting of industrial machinery by Paul Kelpe; a moody portrait by the poet W.B. Yeats’ brother Jack called Sligo Quay; a funky abstract piece called Walking on Grass by John Storrs; an etheral scene of children dancing on the beach by George William Russell; a cubist painting of a schoolboy by Albert Gleizes; a comically grisly bull-fighting scene cheekily named Critical Success by Jean Cocteau; an abstract composition by possibly of a museum scene by David Smith; a sultry scene of Can Can Dancers by Marcel Gromaire; a colorful portrait of the poet Arthur Rimbaud by Jean Cocteau; some ghostly lithographs of landscapes by Grant Wood; a dramatic illustrative painting of The Voyage of St. Brandan by Edward Reginald Frampton (comically British name); a simple but character rich cubist nude graphite drawing by Elie Nadelman; and a series of impressionistic drawings and sketches by Gaston Lachaise.
Reaching the top floor of the museum, visitors are greeted by a melancholy but really powerful mural by Jim Dine called “What was then, will never be again” which has a darkness that really fascinatingly contrasts with the abundance of natural light that comes in from the skylight at the center of the mural.
Next up was some pre-20th century American and European art, which is always very pretty but doesn’t quite grab me as much on a personal level (it might have also been that at this I was getting museum fatigue having been at the Chazen for close to three hours, which is maybe what it feels like reading this giant post).
Of these paintings, my favorites included: a very strong and dignified portrait by Charles Sprague Pearce of his wife Antonia standing very regally in a field; a much less dignified portrait by Giuseppe Angeli of a sleeping woman (I like to think she fell asleep while sitting for a real portrait and the artist just didn’t stop painting); a typically unbelievable landscape painting by Albert Bierstadt called The Boating Party; a serene quasi-pointillist rural scene painted in Fleury, France by Walter Griffin; a kaleidoscopic post-Impressionist piece by Maximillian Luce called The River Sambre at Charleroi; a really lovely impressionist portrait of a Lacemaker by Louis Valtat; an insane painting of a scene Ovid’s Metamorphoses attributed to Paolo de' Matteis in which Cupid gets revenge on Apollo for making fun of his small arrows (not making this up) by making him fall in love with Daphne and then shooting her with lead arrow so she can never love him back which is pretty brutal but looks really silly with Cupid’s little baby body; a painting by Daniel Maclise of a kilted man carving his crush’s initials into a tree which is hilariously called Scottish Lovers; a really tender portrait of a grandfather rocking a baby girl called In Grandfather’s Arms byJozef Israëls which just melts your heart; another paining of a sleeping woman called Girl in the Arbor by Walter Friederici though this at least she looks a bit more peaceful and not just conked out; a sweet but super bizarre scene of a man with a peg leg explaining a model ship to a young girl called 80th Birthday by Thomas Satterwhite Noble; and an incredible, dramatic allegorical painting by the famously more realist painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot called Orpheus Greeting the Dawn (or Hymn to the Sun) which just seems to have light emanating from within the painting.
All these paintings were accompanied by a bevy of fantastic modern and classical sculptures. My favorites included: a wonderfully expressive Rodin piece called Fauness; a piece by one of Rodin’s most famous former students, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, called Desha which just seems to explode with joy and energy; some interesting cubist terra-cotta sculptures of Native Americans by Frank Lloyd Wright which is not something I’ve ever seen from the famous architect before; a simple but beautifully realistic bronze bust by Jacob Epstein called Deirdre; a flowy impressionist bronze relief by Elie Nadelman called Two Nudes (or Spring); some funky cubist sculptures by Russian theater designer Alexandra Alexandrovna Exter called Three Costumed Figures (Revue) which may have been used as models for costuming and choreographic an avant-garde ballet; a strange abstract piece by Antoine Pevsner called Construction in the Round which doesn’t seem like it should be able to stay up as its mounted; a really pretty cubist bronze sculpture of a woman combing her hair (with sketches of the sculpture next to it) by Alexander Archipenko; a really elegant abstract piece made out of blown glass surrounded by slip-cast stoneware byTashima Etsuko called Cornucopia 09-Y3; a Cubist still-life relief by Jacques Lipschitz; a creepy yet oddly captivating abstract construction by Lee Bontecou made of iron framing, wire, and canvas; a little bronze sculpture byJohn Storrs called Open Window with Figures where one of the guys looks much more distressed to be in the window than the other; a very squat bronze sculpture of a bird by Lee Bontecou; an abstract representation of the Greek god Hephaestus by Dimitri Hadzi; a scene by Antoine-Louis Barye of Theseus combatting a sort of compact Minotaur; and a bronze sculpture of a reclining woman Morning by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi that is actually a small copy a piece that Michaelangelo made for the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici after his assassination in an attempt to overthrow his family’s control over Renaissance-era Florence.
Possibly one of the oldest European pieces in the museum was this charmingly rustic and impressively well preserved Roman mosaic of different animals just sort of wandering around from roughly the 5th century.
Last but not least, there was somehow one more modern/contemporary gallery I didn’t see yet which did have some pretty great pieces. Highlights for me included: a goofy cubist scene by Ray Yoshida with the very catchy title Meticulous Mesmerist; a sort of hypnotic abstract Melvin F. Butor called Eastern Star; a strange painting by Sidney Goodman called Champions Always that appears to depict two men (one with a baby just hanging off of him) doing handstands on an animal enclosure; a gleefully sacrilegious piece that I’m sure always attracts some mild controversies called Christ Overpainting by Arnulf Rainer; a really fascinatingly textured albeit not particularly pretty abstraction by Luis López Feito called Painting no. 183; a sort of cartoony yet melancholy bronze relief by Leonard Baskin called Homage to the House un-American Activities Committee; a really clever abstract sculpture by Fletcher Benton called Folded Square Alphabet B because the colored bits actually do form a capital “B”; and a delightfully pompous wooden sculpture by Leonard Baskin called Laureate Standing.
The piece that absolutely blew my mind though was Eugène Brands’ painting called Demon of Shipwrecks which was painted in 1951 which means it predates the existence of the Kool-Man by at least five years despite the genuinely shocking resemblance. It’s almost certainly a coincidence but the idea of the Kool-Aid Man in some way also being a demon responsible for shipwrecks is just an amazing thing I never would have considered if not for this painting so for that I am eternally grateful.
After that massive museum, I was in truly desperate need of some coffee so I went to the hip and classy Fair Trade Coffee, which would be a fantastic study spot if I was a UWM student. It had a great relaxed atmosphere and great tasting strong coffee, all within walking distance of the campus. What could be better than that?
Refueled I made my way to pay respects to a deeply quirky Madison landmark, a small roadside plaque placed at the sight of a crazy true story in the city’s history. One day in 1977, Elvis Presley was passing through Madison on his way to a hotel when he noticed a teenaged boy getting beaten up on the side of the road while stopped at a red light. Elvis promptly jumped out of his limo ran to the bullied teen and started doing karate moves in front of his attackers. Shocked by the sudden appearance of the King of Rock and Roll, the bullies stopped what they were doing, apologized, and promised to stop picking on the other kid. Elvis drove away, and 52 days later he died. It sounds almost too hard to believe, but there were several eye-witnesses who were all able to back up the story when it first broke. Honestly, that’s 1000% worth building a monument too and the plaque has a little etching of the King doing some karate-esque moves. Sadly the bronze plate that actually explains the story behind the landmark has fallen off which in some ways just makes it more delightfully mysterious.
After that, I found a parking spot near the Capitol building in the heart of the city, and just spent a bit of time walking around this pretty incredible piece of domed architecture.
For dinner and pre-comedy drinks, I went to a classic Madison tavern called The Old Fashioned. Somehow I’d spent most of a week in Wisconsin and still hadn’t done a cheese tasting so I went about fixing that right away. I got the Wisconsin Artisanal Cheese Plate No. 2 which came with three local cheeses, a heaping helping of crackers, toasted walnuts, a locally made fruit preserve, and fresh honey. The three cheeses I got included an English style cheddar aged 1 yr from Mapleleaf Cheese in Monroe, a Goulda-esque goat’s cheese from a LaClare Family Farm in Chilton, and the Dunbarton blue which is a mix of cheddar and cave-aged bleu cheese from Roelli Cheese in Shullsburg. I’m not exactly an expert in cheeses, but everything tasted amazing. I don’t normally love bleu cheese but because it was blended with cheddar it was more subtle and it went particularly well with the honey. That being said I am a simple man, and a good aged cheddar is pretty hard to beat, but it was a fun light dinner that let me try lots of local specialties while also taking into account the absolutely massive burger I had for lunch. To wash it all down, I got a refreshingly crisp lager called Two Women made in coloration between New Glarus Brewing and Weyermann Malting, which are two local craft breweries that are both female-owned businesses which is still a rarity in the world of beers. Even without neat underlying female solidarity, it was just a great tasting lighter beer that was a gentle malty complement to all my cheese.
After dinner, I made my way to the night’s open mic at Madison’s premiere comedy club Comedy on State. This club was amazing, and even though it was just an open mic they were absolutely packed with audience members so it felt like a real show. Thanks to that crowd and the overall strong performances from all the comics, there was just a really great energy in the room that night and I had an absolute blast. It didn’t hurt that they also had a trendy and well-stocked bar as well which probably helped keep everyone’s good spirits up even 20 comics in. I for one really enjoyed a local Pilsner from Ale Asylum called the 12. Oz Curl which was was really tasty but relatively low abv so I didn’t feel so bad drinking it before my set.
My favorite comic of the night was a guy named Esteban Touma who just had a really fun and goofy stage presence and some really clever lines. My favorite bit of his was “My favorite movie growing up was Bambi and so I was so excited when I came to America for the first time and got to see half of one on the road.” He also had a silly bit that really hit my particular upbringing where he said “Going to church is a lot like going to a Steely Dan concert. You’re just constantly like "Oh okay I guess we're standing for this one"“
Other highlights:
Ryan Donnehue- So many people bailed on plans this week, I just assumed they were throwing me a surprise party
Jake Snell- It would really suck to be lost in the woods and shooting up a flare on the Fourth of July
David Shenlander- I’m old and let me tell you being 69 and doing 69 are mutually exclusive. I'd rather do 68, you do me and I... owe you one
Carly Malison- The doctor asked me if was planning on getting pregnant in the next few months and I thought he was hitting on me
Rory Roose- I look like I just lost custody of my 6th grade twins
Joey Banoski- I don't know if you know this about gun people, but they don't like to be tread upon
Eliot GB- (about being mixed race) I was looking at paint swatches, and the guy at Home Depot asked if I was redoing my kitchen and I said, "Nah I'm trying to find myself”
Scott Shaffer- I got into an argument with a guy who was vaping because who doesn’t.
Thomas Jarret- Big and Tall isn't for tall people, it's for big and tall people
Avery Krangler- I love attention so much I want to be an unsolved murder. Then you get to be a part of a police detective’s failing marriage
I think because this was the most non-comedians I’d had in an audience in some time, it really lit a fire under me to bring my A-game, and I just had one of those sets where everything seemed to be landing. At least some of that must have been this crowd being particularly supportive, but it was still a massive confidence boost and I basically rode that high all the way back to my Air BnB for the night.
Favorite Random Sightings: A groaner of a pun in a billboard that said “Chrch are u what's missing?”; a weirdly exuberant slogan that said “We fix ugly driveways!”; a crazily named store called Nutkrack: Purveyor of Fine Nuts; Mustard Girl: All American Mustards; a hair salon called Nogginz; a burger shop called Moo-Yah’s!; a pet store called Bad Dog Frida; and a weirdly intense noodle shop called Hell Ramen
Regional Observation: Because UWM’s mascot is the Badger, there are all these different painted badgers at different major landmarks which is pretty cute even if the badger himself looks like he’s about to get into a bar fight
Albums Listened To: 2015 Adult Swim Singles by Various Artists (free singles from the adult animation channel, I just got Lively Hood by DOOMSTARKS, a collaboration between Ghostface Kila and the late great MF DOOM, and a trippy collaboration between George Clinton and Flying Lotus called the Lavishments of Light Looking); 2016/01/19 Chicago, IL by Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band (a live album that my friend got as a free download after a Bruce concert he was supposed to see was cancelled due to a blizzard)
Joke of the Day: A new hair salon opened up for business right across the street from the old established hair cutters' place.
They put up a big bold sign which read: "WE GIVE SEVEN DOLLAR HAIR CUTS!"
Not to be outdone, the old Master Barber put up his own sign: "WE FIX SEVEN DOLLAR HAIR CUTS!"
Songs of the Day:
RIP to the Villain
weirdly mesmerizing fan-made video
Bruce dancing at the beginning is very endearingly dorky