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Gladly Bradley
Without Peg Bradley, there wouldn’t be the Milwaukee Art Museum as we know it today.
Think about the panting dog in Alex Katz’s Sunny #4 (1971), Warhol’s larger-than-life Brillo Soap Pads Box (1964), or the dazzling blooms of O’Keeffe’s Poppies (1950). These favorites once belonged to Bradley, along with nearly 400 modern and contemporary pieces that the prominent local philanthropist collected over two decades.
Then, in 1975, she donated it all to the museum. The gift was so big that the museum constructed a new wing to hold it. (Bradley provided seed money.) “The whole time, she was thinking philanthropically,” says chief of curatorial affairs Liz Siegel. Fifty years later, the works remain the core of MAM’s permanent collection.
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To celebrate the Bradley Collection’s anniversary, Siegel knew it couldn’t “just be a party.” Instead, MAM invited scholars from around the world to study the collection, and museum curators to research its history and Bradley’s discerning eye.
This scholarship forms the basis of MAM’s new exhibition, “The Bradley Collection of Modern Art: A Bold Vision for Milwaukee” (Sept. 26-Jan. 18). It will walk viewers through Bradley’s beginnings amassing modern works of German Expressionism – Siegel says an expert “told us that we have the best collection of Münter paintings outside of Germany” – up through her growing confidence collecting paintings of her time. For regulars, Siegel hopes the exhibition sheds new light on familiar pieces, while offering some surprises with rarely seen works from the archives. “It really is a walk through 20th century art.”
Once in a Tile
Ben Tyjeski’s small faience tiles are rich with natural imagery and rooted in Milwaukee history. While writing a book on our city’s little-known tile-making past, Tyjeski decided to put his own spin on the craft. Now, he’s opening his first exhibition of tile work, “Birds and Blooms” (Sept. 19-Oct. 18) at Grove Gallery, comprising individual squares and panels.
How did you get into tile-making?
As an artist, you’re always trying to create something that you really feel deep down in your heart. I questioned what I was doing for a long time, but I kept doing it because that’s all I knew, or that’s what I thought people wanted.
I love biking around Milwaukee and taking pictures of buildings. I had worked on that one book, Architectural Terra Cotta of Milwaukee County, but then I wanted to work on this tile book [Carl Bergmans and the Continental Faience & Tile Co.]. That was 2018; that’s when I was like, “Oh, this is something I can do.” I don’t want to recreate this [style] specifically, but the way it’s made. The trials and errors of glaze and all those technical things – I found a process that I feel passionately about.
You say tiles aren’t just decorative. Why is that?
You go to [your] home to escape from life, right? But home can also be a place to escape to somewhere. Tiles and their scenes and figures – they are an escape. This stuff is so purposeful.
How do you come up with your designs?
I create the designs from memory. When I see a merganser [a type of duck] tile that I made, I’m thinking of the time I was watching them on the Milwaukee River. Someone else might have had that same experience.
Most of your tiles are made for places, be it a home, school, etc. What’s it like having them in an exhibition?
As I’m making these pieces, I’m like, “Gosh, I wish I was putting these on a wall somewhere.” I don’t like the idea that they could be removed. But I’m interested to hear what people will see in these pieces as something that they could hang.
Besides the history, what draws you to tile-making?
There’s something that paintings don’t have. They’re flat, but they offer these textures that are uniquely ceramic, and they simulate nature in many ways.
Other Must-See Exhibits
THROUGH DEC. 20 | HAGGERTY MUSEUM OF ART
Through the empathetic works of four interdisciplinary artists – Bryana Bibbs, Raoul Deal, Maria Gaspar and Swoon – this exhibition challenges the notion that personal trauma is just one’s own to bear.
SEPT. 12-OCT. 25 | PORTRAIT SOCIETY GALLERY
The specter of the pandemic hasn’t really left us. The haunting photographs of this Detroit artist, taken using early 20th-century equipment, show this through translucent cloths, strings and figures that convey the fabric of reality dissipating.
THROUGH JAN. 25, 2026 | JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER
The fruition of Lakota artist Rowe’s residency at JMKAC, this exhibition showcases dozens of community-created objects using natural materials that examine connections to Lake Michigan waterways. The works are joined by new watercolor paintings from Rowe, inspired by the same waters.
