Allen and Vicki Samson make major art gift to the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
(MILWAUKEE) The Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University announced today a major art donation from Milwaukee collectors Allen and Vicki Samson. The new acquisitions will be on display at the Museum beginning Thursday, January 27, 2005.
The Samson gift consists of works by Scottish painter Ken Currie, drawings by German contemporary artist Georg Baselitz, paintings by American artists Joseph Raffael, Tim Rollins + Kids of Survival (K.O.S.), Carolyn Brady, Viola Frey, Alicia Czechowski, Lester Johnson, C.J. Yao, and Warren Brandt, and a contemporary sculpture by Leonard Baskin
"The Haggerty Museum is pleased to announce the Samson gift and to provide the Milwaukee community the opportunity to appreciate the work of the various artists collected by the Samsons. The gift, which includes thirteen works from the Samson collection, represents a major contribution to the Haggerty Museum of Art" said Dr. Curtis L. Carter, director of the Haggerty Museum.
George Baselitz spent his career working against the mainstream as a painter, printmaker and sculptor. His early work included imagery based in the body. In 1969, Baselitz began painting his subjects upside down and concentrated on the medium itself more than the subject matter, as seen in the drawing Untitled, 1981 from the Vicki and Allen Samson collection.
American artist Tim Rollins began working with troubled teens from the South Bronx in the early '80s in a group called Kids of Survival (K.O.S.). The Haggerty work, Second Study for Amerika-The Stoker, South Bronx, 1992, incorporates text from the short story The Stoker.
Scottish painter, Ken Currie studied fine art at the Glasgow School of Art (1978-83). His large-scale charcoal works often comment on the lives of the disadvantaged in our society, such as in On His Last Nightshift…Teabreak.
Lester Johnson enlarged the scope of Abstract Expressionism. His figurative paintings provide a link between Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism of the 1980s. His Classical Group # 4 is representative of his group portraits of people in conversation.
Allen and Vicki Samson collect art in a number of areas including German Expressionism, early 20th century drawings and etchings from the School of the Eight and Contemporary art from the 1980s.
The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 pm; Thursday, 10 am-8 pm; and Sunday, noon-5 pm. Admission to the Museum is free. For more information or to schedule free tours, call (414) 288-1669. Visit the Museum's Web site at marquette.edu/haggerty.