As a part of its 15th anniversary celebration, the Grohmann Museum is organizing a blockbuster exhibition from one of the premier collections of American industrial art—The Shogren-Meyer Collection. A collection focused primarily on the art of the 1930s and 40s, it also includes many fine examples from the surrounding decades, with many created during the depression era—a time of both toil and triumph.  

A grand opening event will be held for A Time of Toil and Triumph on Friday, Sept. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. The free event will include a Gallery Talk with the collectors, Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer at 6:30 p.m.  

Now making their home in the Twin Cities, Shogren and Meyer met while in college at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where both majored in history. It was at that time they took a keen interest in the era on which the collection is based, the “interwar period,” a time of American reinvention—economically, socially, and artistically.  

They have since built one of the finest collections of American Art concentrated on this time. Selected from the hundreds of works in their collection, A Time of Toil and Triumph will include dozens of paintings and photographs by Aaron Bohrod, Margaret Bourke-White, John Steuart Curry, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Edmund Lewandowski, Dorothea Lange, Thornton Oakley, and Isaac Soyer, among many others.  

Organized alongside the exhibition are several educational programs (lectures, tours, workshops, and panel discussions) planned throughout its run, specifically created in celebration of this Museum milestone. 

The museum is in downtown Milwaukee at 1000 N. Broadway. Admission is only $5 for adults; $3 for students and seniors; and free for children under 12.  

The Grohmann Museum (grohmannmuseum.org) is home to more than 1,700 paintings and sculptures dating from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work: from farming and mining to trades such as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. The Grohmann Museum welcomes visitors to three floors of galleries where a core collection is displayed as well as themed exhibitions. The museum is owned by Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), an independent university with about 2,700 students. MSOE offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the engineering computer science, business mathematics and nursing fields.

*Thornton Oakley (1881-1953), The Wonderland of Oil, ca.1942, Pastel and gouache on paper, 30 x 40 in.