Roadtrip: Art in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Art Museum has been closed for about a year for remodeling. They reopened last month so we thought it was time to check it out.

We had never been to the Haggerty Art Museum at Marquette University.  It's fairly small so we could fit a visit in before lunch.  It used to be pretty rare for photography to be allowed at all in most art museums but recently that seems to have changed.  They're usually pretty crowded with few places to sit a camera without it getting bothered during a long exposure, but we were the only ones in this gallery for most of the exposure and there was a nice ledge at just the right height.

And a bench just through that doorway.

In the middle of the Marquette campus is a 14th century chapel from France.  It was moved to Long Island in the 20's and then again here in the 60's when it was donated to Marquette.

It's called the Joan of Arc chapel because it contains a stone at which she once prayed that the architect brought from another French chapel when they reassembled it in America. Even at Marquette they're skeptical about that.

Then we walked a few blocks down Wisconsin Avenue to the Ambassador Hotel for lunch.  I wanted to go there because it was where I stayed when I played in the 1966 Wisconsin Catholic State Basketball Tournament. (It later changed to the Wisconsin Independent Schools but now everybody plays together in one tournament in Madison)  We came in third.  The place was full of girls from Racine. The next year coach put us in a motel way out in Wauwatosa.

We got there too late to have lunch in the dining room so we had to eat in the Lounge. (We didn't get to go in there in 1966.)  I had a Bloody Mary that came with a sausage stick, a stick of cheese, a pickle, a stalk of asparagus, a mushroom, a big green olive and a pearl onion in it.  Practically lunch by itself.

The entrance to the Milwaukee Art Museum is in a large hall with a 200 foot set of wings that open and close on top of it (it's a sunscreen they say).  The special exhibits gallery and museum store are between it and the rest of the galleries.  It's all connected by these long corridors.

They have several galleries dedicated to large contemporary paintings and sculpture. 

The Museum is right on the Lake.  We took a break for a beer in the little bar with it's walls of windows facing the lake.  This turned into a pretty nice sunset just after I finished this exposure, but we'd finished our drinks and went back to the art.

And, Sarah and I contemplating one of our favorites: a Mark Rothko painting.  I think a 6 x 9 foot print of this photograph would be a great addition to their collection.

All with the Populist. .15mm pinhole 24mm from 24x36mm frame.