Ruth Grotenrath was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1912, the same year John Cage was born in Los Angeles, California, and Jackson Pollock in Cody, Wyoming. In 1933, age 21, Grotenrath received a BA in art history from the Wisconsin State Teachers College (now UWM). She also graduated to adulthood in the worst days of the Great Depression.

WAM’s exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective of her work. It begins with black-and-white images made for the 1929 Riverside High School yearbook. The exhibition includes early social realism for the Work Progress Administration (WPA), textile designs, and numerous still lifes. Most of the exhibition features Grotenrath’s invention of a unique, personal art, for which she is known and remembered.

Grotenrath learned from Frank Lloyd Wright’s love of Japanese art, meeting him with her husband and fellow-artist Schomer Lichtner in 1934. She was inspired by her visits to the Art Institute of Chicago with its collection of Japanese prints and exhibitions of European modernists such as Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse. She also drew from her personal study of Japanese art and philosophy, including a two-month visit to Japan in 1965.

This exhibition features work from the Guido Brink Fine Art Collection at MIAD, the Milwaukee Public Library, the Museum of Wisconsin Art, the Racine Art Museum, and the Warehouse Art Museum along with select private lenders.

Curated by Annemarie Sawkins, co-author of A Creative Place: The History of Wisconsin Art (2021).

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OnMilwaukee, (01/30/2023) Bobby Tanzilo recounts his tour of Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath: All Things Belong to This Earth.

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Shepherd Express, (01/2023) David Luhrssen writes a review of WAM’s newest exhibition, Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath: All Things Belong to This Earth.

“Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath: All Things Belong To This Earth” Opens at WAM on Jan. 13, 2023

Urban Milwaukee, (12/16/22)

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath Closing Reception

03/31 @ 4pm

Spotlight on “Modern Madonna” with John Shannon

Managing Director John Shannon discusses one work in depth | 03/30 @ 12pm

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath Catalogue Release

Book signing with Annemarie Sawkins and Jan Serr | 03/17 @ 3pm

“Hard Times and Handicrafts”

with Jackie Schweitzer 03/09 @ 4pm

“Japonism, Buddhism, and Regionalism: The Japanese Contexts of Ruth Grotenrath”

with Martha Chaiklin | 03/02 @ 4pm

Curator's Tour in French | Visite Guidée en Français

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath guided tour by Guest Curator Annemarie Sawkins–en Français | 02/24 @ 2pm

“Promoting Womens’ Art in the WPA”

with Kay Wells | 02/23 @ 4pm

Introduction to Zen Practice

Rev. Reirin Gumbel will leads discussion and meditation session | 02/10 @ 4pm

Noon Hour Director’s Tour

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath guided tour by Managing Director John Shannon | 02/02, 03/14 @ 12pm

Noon Hour Curator’s Tour

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath guided tour by Guest Curator Annemarie Sawkins | 01/26, 02/09, 02/16, 03/16, 03/23 @ 12pm

Gallery Night & Day

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath | 01/20, 01/21 @ 5-8pm, 11-2pm

Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath Opening Reception

Guest Speakers: John Shannon, Jan Serr, Annemarie Sawkins | 01/13 @ 4pm