acquisitions
The Anthony Petullo Collection Comprising 293 works by 32 different artists, the gift of the Anthony Petullo Collection greatly enhances the Milwaukee Art Museum’s holdings of self-taught material. Petullo, a retired Milwaukee businessman, built his collection over a span of three decades, acquiring works by the most important European and American artists in the genre including Minnie Evans, Henry Darger, Martín Ramírez, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Bill Traylor, Alfred Wallis, Adolf Wölfli, and Anna Zemánková. The Petullo Collection’s strength is in European self-taught art and represents the most extensive grouping of this work in any American museum or private collection. Petullo’s intention from the outset was to build a personal collection that would complement the Museum’s holdings, and his gift now firmly establishes the Milwaukee Art Museum as a leading American institution for self-taught material. It has been widely acknowledged that artists traditionally categorized as self-taught have created some of the most compelling works of modern and contemporary art. These are artists who—because of poverty, isolation, mental or physical disabilities, or other circumstances—operate outside the established structure of art schools, galleries, and museums, but nevertheless produce significant bodies of work. Several artists in the Petullo Collection are represented in great depth, allowing for a comprehensive examination of their work. Examples of the drawings and the ceramics of British artist Scottie Wilson and nearly forty drawings and sketchbooks by Swiss artist Rosemarie Koczy are included in the gift, as are multiple works by lesser-known but equally noteworthy artists such as Italian draftsman Domenico Zindato and English pointillist painter James Lloyd. The Museum’s commitment to the work of self-taught artists began as early as 1951 with the gift of two paintings by Wisconsin artist Anna Louisa Miller. Other important works entered the collection over the following three decades, culminating in the 1989 acquisition of the Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art. In 2012, with the addition of the Petullo Collection and the Landford Wilson Collection, the Museum’s holdings now encompass a more broadly inclusive representation of self-taught art as a world phenomenon.
PAINTINGS
Cleveland Brown (English, b. Jamaica, 1943) George Melly at the Circus, 1982 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm) M2012.18 Sylvette David (French, b. 1934, active in England) The Mermaid, n.d. Oil on board 15 x 20 in. (38.1 x 50.8 cm) M2012.25 Pansy Friends, n.d. Oil on canvas 13 x 11 in. (33.02 x 27.94 cm) M2012.26
Blackbird Song, 2000 Oil on board 14 x 17 ¼ in. (35.56 x 43.82 cm) M2012.22 James Dixon (Irish, 1887–1970) Cottages Covered with Spume, 1965 Oil on board 19 x 23 in. (48.26 x 58.42 cm) M2012.33 Arlin Point, 1966 Oil, pencil, and ink on board 22 x 29 ½ in. (55.88 x 74.93 cm) M2012.34
Devon, 1989 Oil on board 11 x 16 in. (27.94 x 40.64 cm) M2012.27
Louis Ernout (French, 1892–1983) Les animaux, n.d. Oil on canvas 23 ½ x 19 ½ in. (59.69 x 49.53 cm) M2012.39
The Tea Pot, 1989 Oil on board 21 ½ x 20 in. (54.61 x 50.8 cm) M2012.28
Concours hippique, n.d. Oil on canvas 18 x 21 ½ in. (45.72 x 54.61 cm) M2012.37
2012 annual report |
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left Madge Gill, Untitled, n.d. Full credit listing on p. 36. Photo by Larry Sanders.