1905 Building

This exhibition, organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum, featured 150 objects, ranging from an 18th century weathervane to turn-of-the-century whirligigs and recent works by “outsider” artists. The exhibition encompassed a rich assortment of works by self-taught American artists from all regions of the country, dating from the 18th through the 20th century. Traditional folk art and the less familiar expressions of recent visionary artists were united in a compelling display of our nation’s enduring cultural diversity.

This unique assortment of non-academic art was collected over three decades by Michael Hall, a critic and former head of the sculpture program at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Julie Hall, author of Tradition and Change: The New American Craftsman. The collection represents what Michael Hall calls a “stereoscopic vision” — looking at both the traditional roots and individual creativity of folk art.

Common Ground/Uncommon Vision included paintings and drawings, large and small-scale sculpture, religious carvings, ceramics, decoys, canes and lodge hall paraphernalia. The works represent the diverse ethnicity of the artists and range from the figurative to the near abstract. The exhibition was part of a national tour to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Phoenix Art Museum, as well as the Albright-Knox and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

This exhibition was organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum Director Russell Bowman, with Jeffrey Hayes, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Consulting Curator, and Julia Guernsey, Project Coordinator.