Not so recently on a Saturday or Sunday
afternoon, on an impromptu visit to UWM’s Inova Gallery was had and there I
found him, there I found it, inspiration, beauty, and a sort of [art] awakening. The artist was Eugene
Von Bruenchenhein. His show, well, it was amazing. It had been quite a long
time since I've actually wanted to stare at art for more than one minute to
look at every detail, every nuance, each and every stroke, and every possible
color that the artist had used, EVB was my first in a long time. I was shocked
that a random visit to a local gallery would hit me as hard as it did
especially with all of the disappointment I had experienced from “new” art I
had seen and this gallery specifically as well [see previous post My (now) Long Distance Relationship]
before. I thought he would be the perfect start to my long journey back to art.
At
first glance coming into Inova, you were hit with pops of color on the blank
white gallery walls and as you walked towards them, if you let yourself, Eugene's
works were able to take you to the future or a time long before ours. His
paintings seemed to take place in a world of fantasy and mystery, with a hint of wonder
and excitement. He brings you in and keeps you there as long as you'll let him
with great details of his work and the lines that guide you every which
way. The shapes and the movement that he created to stimulate our imaginations,
it is a wonder where these worlds came from to make these paintings on
cardboard.
When
I arrived home from Inova I was excited. I wanted to know everything about this
artist: where he was from, what his training was, what his art story was, I
wanted to know it all. Here’s what I found out. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was
born July 31st, 1910 here in Wisconsin [Marinette, WI to be exact].
His mother, father, and two brothers moved to Green Bay but settled down in
Milwaukee where his father was a sign painter then a manager at a local grocery
store. His mother died in 1917 and his father remarried a woman who would
inevitably become EVB’s mentor until her passing in 1938. Bruenchenhein was
best known for his photography, but in this his paintings are what I was amazed
by. He developed his own style of painting by a way in which we are all too
familiar with, with our fingers. Here’s where he differed though, he would also
use “tools” found around the house or in nature such as small sticks or
homemade brushes made with his wife’s own hair. His paintings were made by
“pushing” paint around on the surfaces that he used, creating movement and
three-dimensionality. The paintings that were displayed at Inova seemed to
paintings of world’s that resembled ours but with a very heavy science fiction
undertone; places depicting worlds that you would see in TV shows like Doctor
Who or a George Lucas type film. Even with the art he created Eugene, when
asked he told people that he was a horticulturist [he was then working at a
local florist shop and was a member of the Milwaukee Cactus Club]. Art was a
hobby, a hobby that he was clearly good at, but a hobby nonetheless. At a time
in the late 1930s art was no longer a way of life; it was no longer a
responsible career one could have supporting a wife, but a hobby. Unfortunate,
in the last years of Eugene’s life he and his wife were living entirely off of
his monthly $220 checks from Social Security, never really knowing that his
talent and his work were worth so much more. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein died on
January 24th, 1983 at the age of 72 from congestive heart failure.
But here’s the part of the story that is both so sad but so amazing to me.
Years before EVB passed he had befriended a West Allis police man, Daniel Nycz,
who contacted then chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in hope that some
of his friend’s art work could be sold off in order to provide for Eugene’s
wife. MAM’s curator, Russell Bowman in turn called Ruth Kohler, director of the
John Michael Kohler Arts Center and officer of the Kohler Foundation which was
known for preserving the work of outsider artists. In September 1983, all of
Bruenchenhein's works contained within his home were transported to the John
Michael Kohler Arts Center. Subsequently, an extensive effort to document,
catalog and preserve Von Bruenchenhein's work was mounted under the direction
of Joanne Cubbs. You can now
see EVB’s works in museums in cities such as New York, [locally in] Sheboygan
and at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian
American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Like a lot of famous artists, Eugene
Von Bruenchenhein was not acclaimed in his time but after. But how thankful I
am and others no doubt for the work that he has done never knowing what true
inspiration he would bring to others long after his time in this world.
His
story like many other artists is amazing to read as an art historian and to
know as a viewer. Researching and learning about these artist's humble
beginnings to their unfortunate ends to their rebirth in a world that never necessarily
welcomed them in or for some never thought they were to ever be a part of.
Eugene defined himself not as an artist but as a horticulturist. He did not
have the bravado of some artists but sheer enjoyment of doing art for himself.
He must have known his reality and his circumstances so he remained at a steady
paying job that would support the life that he and his wife had together, never
knowing that one day he would live on in museums like the Smithsonian. A boy
from Marinette, WI to the Smithsonian, who could know? But what a fantastic
story.
[Pictures to follow this post of Eugene Von
Bruenchenhein's show at the Inova Gallery]
