Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) stands in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States, and holds a collection of more than 35,000 works. Its roots go back to the years after 1872, when several groups tried to give this growing port city an art gallery. After a long run of failed attempts, the Milwaukee Art Association and the Layton Art Gallery, funded by the businessman Frederick Layton, both took shape in 1888; the Layton building has since been demolished. In 1957 the Layton and the Milwaukee Art Institute merged into the Milwaukee Art Center, housed in the War Memorial designed by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. Over time the complex grew, adding the brutalist Kahler Building and, above all, the Quadracci Pavilion of 2001 by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, whose movable wing-like sunscreen has become a city landmark. The painting holdings include works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Jean-Léon Gérôme's Two Majesties, Gustave Caillebotte's Boating on the Yerres, Francisco de Zurbarán's San Francisco, Jules Bastien-Lepage's The Wood Gatherer, Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Shepherdess, Carl Spitzweg's None, Winslow Homer's Hark! The Lark and Lucas Cranach the Elder's portraits, among others. The museum also keeps one of the largest groups of works by Georgia O'Keeffe, who was born in Wisconsin, along with a notable set of German Expressionism. A 2015 extension of about 3,000 square meters, designed by James Shields, added space for light art, photography and video. In 2015 the museum also drew attention for a controversial work showing Pope Benedict XVI, which provoked anger among Catholics and other groups.