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Oriental Pharmacy Lunch Counter

Oriental Pharmacy Lunch Counter

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Adolph Rosenblatt

Sculptor Adolph Rosenblatt studied painting with Josef Albers at Yale University (BFA, 1956) and taught sculpture at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee from 1966 to 1999. An acute social observer of life in Milwaukee, Rosenblatt captured the essence of The Oriental Pharmacy, also known as Oriental Drugs, which stood at the crossroads of East North Avenue and North Farwell Avenue on Milwaukee’s bohemian East Side from its founding in the 1920s until it closed in 1995. Named after the Oriental Theater, the iconic movie palace next door, the diner was also a pharmacy, a newstand, a hardware store, and a candy shop, and most of all, a regular destination and hangout for many. “It’s a lunch counter, but it’s also my world, so it’s my world in terms of a lunch counter,” Rosenblatt proclaimed when this sculpture was exhibited at the East Library in 1988—“We’re all in this half-hinged world.” Paul, the cashier, observed, “You meet a lot of unusual people here, and you not only get your breakfast, but you get a show!” All the ceramic figures populating this sculpture are portraits of the people who frequented the diner, including Hy Eglash, the owner of the pharmacy from 1967 to 1995; members of the artist’s family and their pediatrician; businessmen; jazz musicians; punks; local hospital staff; and a diverse array of characters who would drop in for a meal or a cup of coffee and sit in their habitual spots at the counter where they would find their clique of fellow diners and be served by their favorite waitress. This sculpture preserves a beloved and now long-gone Milwaukee institution, but, most of all, it helps keep alive the memory of the people whose lives revolved around it for generations to come.
Artist
Adolph Rosenblatt
(American, 1933 - 2017)
Title
Oriental Pharmacy Lunch Counter
Date
1986-1987
Medium
Ceramic, paint, and wood
Dimensions
64 x 207 x 94 inches overall
Credit
Gift of the Adolph Rosenblatt Family and Kohler Foundation, Inc.
Accession No.
2019.9.1-59a-b
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
United States

Related

2017, Artist’s estate (Milwaukee, WI); by 2018, Kohler Foundation, Inc. (Kohler, WI); 2018, gifted to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Brehmer, Debra. "Moments & Markers: An Adolph Rosenblatt Retrospective." Milwaukee: Jewish Museum-Milwaukee, 2017.
  • Rosenblatt, Joshua. "Adolph Rosenblatt." Unpublished, produced by Joshua Rosenblatt with help from Kohler Foundation, 2020. p. 30; illus. pp. 134-157

  • Adolph Rosenblatt: Life in Sculpture: Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1/22/2018–2/16/2018
  • Moments & Markers: An Adolph Rosenblatt Retrospective: Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 6/16/2017–8/27/2017
  • Adolph Rosenblatt: Milwaukee in Sculpture: Haggerty Museum of Art, 10/3/1996–1/12/1997
  • Milwaukee City Hall Display "The Oriental Pharmacy": Milwaukee City Hall, 11/1/1995–11/30/1995
  • Title unknown [Oriental Pharmacy display]: Adolph Rosenblatt, 7/14/1987–9/8/1987
  • Milwaukee Public Library (Nov. 1987-1988): Milwaukee Public Library

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