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New Publications

The Chazen Museum publishes critical and documentary catalogues of selected exhibitions. All these publications are available from the Museum Shop and can be ordered at 608.263.2240.

Wild Edges: Photographic Ink Prints by Gregory Conniff
By Gregory Conniff
64 pages, 18 black and white illustrations, $29.9
September 2006

Wild Edges: Photographic Ink Prints by Gregory Conniff is an exhibition about beauty and its necessary place in daily human life. Most of the pictures in the show were made specifically for the exhibition. All are printed in a rich four-black ink process that evokes the sensuality of nineteenth century photographic materials. In Conniff's affectionate and intelligent work, there is a visible connection to the history of landscape art, reaching back as far as Claude Lorrain and seventeenth century Dutch drawing. Conniff is also a leading practitioner of a new pastoralism that is casting a contemporary eye on the current state of America's open land. Postmodern in the best sense, Conniff's pictures address the timeless human need to see beauty in the world that shapes our lives. Includes an essay about the need for beauty in everyday life, a timeline of Conniff's life, and an interview with Chazen Museum of Art Director Russell Panczenko. Photographs are archival ink prints.

Things of Nature and the Nature of Things: John Wilde
By Lisa Wainwright
48 pages, 20 color illustrations, $29.95
June 2006

Things of nature and the nature of things have informed the work of John Wilde for some seventy years. In painstakingly crafted vignettes of figures and props and still life arrangements, Wilde serves up grand parables on the existential condition of modern man. These are timeless and enduring narratives, drawing on traditions from the northern and early Renaissance periods and Flemish paintings to Symbolist and Surrealist iconography and strategy. Wilde amasses a potpourri of sources and motifs and brings them up to the present moment by setting his compositions in the Wisconsin landscape just outside his studio door. In this exhibition, the McClain collection presents a superb overview of Wilde's oeuvre. It includes the full palette of still lifes, allegorical landscapes, and portraits, and covers the period of Wilde's work from the 1940s to recent work from the 1990s.

Metalsmiths and Mentors: Fred Fenster and Eleanor Moty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
By Jody Clowes
128 pages, 118 color illustrations, $29.95
April 2006

Since the 1950s, nearly every significant artist working in metals has trained at a university or art school; hence, academic programs have become the most fertile ground for innovation and exploration in metalsmithing and jewelry making. The University of Wisconsin–Madison's metals program is among the best in the nation.

Its reputation is founded on the teaching legacy of Fred Fenster and Eleanor Moty, who have instilled in their students a profound respect for craftsmanship, technical innovation, formal integrity, and thoughtful design.

The work in this catalogue, produced for a show at the Chazen Museum of Art, encompasses holloware and jewelry, wearable sculpture, poetic and narrative objects, and conceptual installations.