�ձ�av��Ƶ

"Great exhibit! I had some of these artists as teachers at �ձ�av��Ƶ in the 1970s. It brings back lots of great memories!"

"What a beautiful exhibit! I will be using this to guide me through my comp class and I'm excited to explore this realm of writing."

"I am supposed to write an essay on one of these pieces too. Very excited!"

"Lovely art"

"A class of mine is based off one of these pieces (writing). I can't wait to research them more!"

"I like the one by Laura Rogers with the forest fire."

Thomas Hart Benton

"In the Ozarks"

The South Dakota Memorial Art Center was dedicated on Sunday, May 31, 1970. Over the course of the year, works were acquired through generous gifts including this lithograph by , a gift of the South Dakota General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The General Federation of Women's Clubs had been a central force in the fundraising and organization of the museum.

Benton’s "In the Ozarks" is after a 1934 painting, in New York City, and was distributed by Associated American Artists in New York City beginning in 1938.

Charles Greener

"Honkers at Sunrise"

Charles Greener (1870-1935) was born in Lancaster, Wisconsin and settled in Faulkton in 1890, where he operated a photography and painting studio. He studied at the University of North Dakota, in Galesburg, Illinois, with Anson Krossin Boston, at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts and with J.H. Kaumeyer in Minneapolis. The South Dakota landscape was Greener’s first love and he produced hundreds of paintings of the prairie in Faulk County. "Honkers at Sunrise" reveals Greener’s fascination with early light on prairie subjects. The artist registered this work for copyright, and it was presumably considered by him to be an important work. This was the first Greener painting acquired by the museum, a gift from the artist’s daughter, Dorothy Greener Olson, and her husband Clarence.

The South Dakota Art Museum preserves 53 works by Charles Greener and maintains an extensive archive about him and his work. Learn more and see additional works in the museum's Charles Greener collection.

Ulfert Wilke

"The 14th of July, 1970"

Ulfert Wilke (1907-1987) was born in Bavaria, studied in Germany and Paris and came to the United States in 1938. He studied at Harvard and the University of Iowa and was director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1968-1975. The "14th of July, 1970" was purchased from the South Dakota Art Museum’s first Northwestern Biennial Exhibition of 1972. July 14th was Wilke’s birthday as well as Bastille Day and that date became the title each year of what he considered his most successful painting of the year.

In one of the many animated letters he exchanged with the artist, South Dakota Art Museum Director Joseph Stuart admitted that this painting was his favorite in the permanent collection. "That painting remains my favorite in the collection, and it takes real willpower to refrain from showing it too much for proper conservation." Stuart was a champion of contemporary and modern art. His legacy lives on through his sensitive curation of acquisitions for the museum, several of which are on display in this exhibition.

Reference: Joseph Martin Stuart biography, "Beyond Order and Chaos" exhibit object label.

Isabelle Weeks

"The French Scene"

Isabelle May Little Weeks (1851-1907) was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, moved to Dakota Territory in 1872 and died in Yankton. She was one of the earliest trained artists working in the state and maintained a studio in her home throughout her life. Weeks belongs to an important group of early female artists working in South Dakota, including Ada B. Caldwell, Myra Morton Miller, the French sisters Grace and Abbie, Laura Rodgers and L. Lova Jones.

Robert Lee Penn

"Urban Indian Series # 4"

Robert Lee Penn (1946-1999) primarily grew up on the Winnebago and Rosebud Reservations in Nebraska and South Dakota. Here received his B.F.A. from the University of South Dakota in 1972. There he spent five formative years under the tutelage of Oscar Howe. Penn displayed an amazing facility with paint, working in both figurative and abstract manners and across media with ease.

About his work, Penn stated, "Abstraction of symbols and themes can re-interpret and integrate the modern world as seen from an Indian viewpoint without strict adherence to traditional art forms and can transcend both worlds to become contemporary modern art as well as a cultural statement. I am constantly aware of the danger of being typecast as far as subject matter goes; there is far more to my vision than just recreating pictures of the past. Art has always been my central issue... it is also my biggest prayer.” 

This painting is from an early autobiographical series by Penn. During his youth, Penn was shuttled from family to family, at one time living in Chicago. Torn between two cultures, he was obliged to adopt two patterns of behavior and, in the end, two personalities. He expressed this dilemma in the "Urban Indian Series" with the divided canvas and double image. The left side shows an image of Chicago from his youth; at the right is his Dakota grandmother emerging from a tipi.

Penn was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1998, resulting in this thoughtful

Mel Spinar

Hilton M. Briggs and Elmer H. Sexauer

Mel Spinar is professor emeritus in drawing and painting at �ձ�av��Ƶ, where he taught from 1969-2003. He studied under Milton Kudlacek at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell before receiving his M.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. His series "Dakota Male Portraits" depicts young men of the 1970s and 80s: confrontational, brash and proud. Since the 1990s, his work has focused on his Bohemian ancestry, their cultural legends and his West River roots.

This commissioned double-portrait depicts �ձ�av��Ƶ President H.M. Briggs (1913-2001) on the left and Elmer Sexauer (1888-1986), South Dakota business leader. Briggs played a central role in reigniting the museum capital campaign in the 1960s and he brought on Sexauer as fundraising chairman. Read more about the historic fundraising campaign that Sexauer led in this 1970 article, South Dakota Memorial Art Center and see images of Briggs and Sexauer from the 1970 dedication and the 1977 ceremony honoring Sexauer for his contributions to the museum in the photo slider on the page.

Art Talk

Hear from Mel Spinar himself in this 2013 Ipso Gallery video.

(John) Gutzon Borglum

"Study of the Mares of Diomedes"

Although John Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) is best known as the sculptor of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, it was "The Mares of Diomedes" that brought him national recognition. The large completed version of this work is in the collection of .

The subject of the sculpture is the last labor of Hercules, as he brings the wild horses of Diomedes under control, symbolizing brute force being conquered and directed by the human mind. Since 1903 the figures of Diomedes and the three lead horses have been damaged on Borglum’s plaster model. The artist’s son, Lincoln, decided to preserve the artistic integrity of the work and cast this study without first attempting a restoration.

Borglum himself and his carving of Mount Rushmore brings up challenging issues highlighting the complexity of his legacy, covered well in these articles:

• , Native News Online, Levi Rickert, June 29, 2020.
• , Smithsonian Magazine, Matthew Shaer, October 2016.

Carl Grupp

"My Grandma’s Vase II"

Carol Grupp (1939-2019) was a recognized leader in arts education in South Dakota and a respected artist in the Midwest. He earned a B.A. in painting at the Minneapolis School of Art and an M.A. in printmaking at Indiana University in 1969. From 1969 to 2004 Grupp was a professor at Augustana University where he was a beloved teacher and mentor to generations of artists.

"My Grandma’s Vase II" is a surrealist image, drawing in elements from the artist’s personal life. Grupp said that you see “things of life and death” in the print: a skull, flowers, animals, Mount Fuji, a crumpled cigarette packet, insects, etc.

Martin Wanserski

"Summer Storm"

Martin Wanserski was born in 1944 in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Syracuse University, New York. Wanserski was associate professor at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion from 1975-2008. Before coming to South Dakota, he perfected his skill in modeling the human figure as a diorama artist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

"Summer Storm" is part of a series that deals with the human condition. The uneasy sleep of a father, mother and their two children (one unborn) during a lightning storm is a metaphor for humanity’s vulnerability.

William Wold

"Table for Two"

William Wold (1938-2008) was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and from 1968-1994 taught ceramics at the University of South Dakota. "Table For Two," Wold wrote, “comes from a series of works which attempt to portray man or the human form as a specialized object. The thought ‘you are what you eat’ seems the best description for these pieces. ... As many others feel, I too believe over-specialization can be hazardous to our health.”

The piece was included in the "South Dakota Biennial IV Exhibition," a precursor to today’s South Dakota Governor’s Biennial. Graham Beal, then curator at the Walker Art Center, selected works for the exhibit and also selected "Table For Two" for a purchase award. He wrote in the catalog introduction, “The successful work of art ... is one that arrests the viewer in the first place and repays continued scrutiny. It declares itself an object that integrates idea —whether theoretical or emotional — and form.”

Mark Lazarus

"Cuttings #32"

Mark Lazarus (1953-) was born in Chicago and was instructor of sculpture and design at �ձ�av��Ƶ, 1979-1984. South Dakota Art Museum director Joseph Stuart wrote, “[Lazarus’] work in a variety of forms is predicated on a rich imagination, a thorough knowledge of art history and new developments and a sensitivity to intellectual/visual interplay.”

In his Cuttings series, the making and painting of thick paper sheets were preliminary to the cutting of that paper into strips for reassembly. What is seen are various sections of the paper interior, along with the inlays and penetration of shellac from the paper-making process.

The representation of art faculty in the state is one facet of the museum’s permanent collection and this exhibit. Lazarus represents �ձ�av��Ƶ in "50 Works for 50 Years" with Mel Spinar (1975), Madeline Ritz (1988), Tim Steele (1989), Ada Caldwell (1992), Nathanial S. Cole (1995), Jeannie French (2011), and Peter Reichardt (2018). Additionally, Carl Grupp (1977) and Robert Aldern (1981) taught at Augustana University, Martin Wanserski (1978) and William Wold (1979) at the University of South Dakota.

Robert Aldern

"Edible Earth"

Robert Aldern (1929 - 2011) was born in Sioux Falls and is perhaps best known as a liturgical artist with over seventy regional church commissions to his credit. Aldern lived most of his life in eastern South Dakota, considering himself a localist rather than a regionalist. His deep personal understanding of the state’s landscape is evident throughout his body of work.

In "Edible Earth" he applied the watercolor in distinct strokes, as one would in a drawing and let those strokes diffuse in the highly absorbent paper to produce a soft, ephemeral image.  Fellow artist, Carl Grupp, whose work "Grandma's Vase II" is included in this exhibition said, “Just as Harvey Dunn painted the South Dakota landscape in the Impressionism of his time, Aldern retells the landscape in the language of his time. He has reinvented painting to show us familiar landscapes that we had never seen before, but when we see it, we say, ‘Yes, that is the way it is’.”

John Glick

"untitled (bowl)"

John Glick (1938-2017) was born in Detroit and received a B.F.A. in 1960 from Wayne State University and an M.F.A. in 1962 from the Cranbrook Academy. In 1965 he founded Plum Tree Pottery on the family’s large fruit orchard in Farmington, Michigan. Glick was concerned with melding utilitarianism with the individual needs of his clients. Plum Tree Pottery produced over 330,000 pieces by the time it closed in 2016. This astounding production was completed with the help of assistants, a common practice in European and Asian studios. The influence of Japanese, Chinese and Korean pottery is apparent in Glick’s forms and Abstract Expressionism in his designs.

Alice Berry (1916-1991) donated this bowl to the permanent collection in 1982. Berry taught art at �ձ�av��Ƶ from 1968-1981 and was an avid ceramics collector.

Diana Tollefson

"Habitation"

Diana Tollefson (1918 – 2009) was an artist, poet and arts educator. She grew up in Minneapolis and studied under Josephine Lutz Rollins and Walter Quirt at the University of Minnesota. Tollefson was a longtime arts educator in Western South Dakota, completing her career as Professor of Art at Black Hills State College. Midwesterners likely remember Tollefson as the host of the South Dakota Public Broadcasting television programs, "Draw with Me" and "Just Imagine," which broadcast in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa in the 1960s – early 1990s.

"Habitation" was the gift of Mrs. Jack Youngberg of Brookings. Youngberg's first name and her association with the museum are lost to history. We would love to reach out to thank the Youngbergs for the donation to the permanent collection. 

Did anyone in the Brookings area know Mrs. Youngberg? let us know! 

Art Talk

Draw With Me from South Dakota Publish Television, your television art visit with Diana Tollefson!

Eugene Buechel 

"Josephine Jumping Eagle in Airoplane (sic)"

Josephine Jumping Eagle was fourteen years old when Father Eugene Buechel photographed her in a Christenson Aeronautical Services plane. She lived on Pine Ridge Reservation, where her father, Oliver, was police chief. According to family history, around the time this photograph was taken, Josephine contracted tuberculosis and nearly died in an Iowa sanitorium though she recovered, married Charles Jacobs in the 1930s and died in 1993.

Father Eugene Buechel left over 2,300 documented negatives and prints of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge people to St. Francis Mission. The images in the South Dakota Art Museum collection were printed from this collection of negatives by David Wing of San Diego, CA, in 1974. They were given to the museum in 1984 by St. Francis Mission in memory of Les Hegeland (1919 – 1982), former editor of the Yankton Press and Dakotan, a friend of the Mission and a trustee of the museum.

Learn more about Eugene Buechel and the images in our collection.

Emelia Iron Necklace

"untitled (hymnal cover)"

Reverend Frank M. Thorburn (1902–1994) spent the summer of 1930 at Wakpala on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, his first visit to the Niobrara Deanery of the Episcopal Church. He was ordained in April 1931 and returned to Wakpala in September of that year to begin his ministry. He was given the Lakota name Wakin Inonpa or Two Packs and adopted by Lulu White Eagle, who had lost her natural son. Thorburn and his wife Abigail moved to the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1932 and served there until 1952, settling in Brookings thereafter. They donated an important collection of American Indian objects to the South Dakota Art Museum from 1985-1986.

This Dakota Bi-Lingual hymnal with beaded cover was given to Thorburn by Amelia Iron Necklace (1867–1936) in about 1931. Amelia Iron Necklace told the Thorburns that the meaning of the beaded designs was as follows: “The front red beads with eagle are for the Dakota, for we are all Americans. The date, 1928 is when her husband, Joshua Iron Necklace, died. The back is white for the English. The horse was her husband’s favorite, that he rode to church while carrying his books. The middle of the spine is brown, a mixture of red and white, indicating that the two peoples, Indian and White, have to learn to live together and sing together.”

Dean Cornwell

"untitled"

Known as “The Dean of Illustrators,” Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) was a Kentucky native who took part in an intensive three-month painting workshop led by Harvey Dunn in Leonia, New Jersey, in 1915. He went on to become a major presence in the illustration field throughout the first half of the 20th century. Cornwell also studied mural painting in England under Frank Brangwyn and completed several major murals of his own in the United States.

Cornwell learned how to paint a feeling from Dunn, who said, “Take the subject of a man in despair. Let the sky be lowering, weeping in sympathy. The hill will be bleak and barren and shrubbery and tree bending with the same grief. This is a mood.” This teaching is evident in this painting, which illustrated Warwick Deeping’s 1933 story “Seven Men Came Back” in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Marion Kaye, the widow of Dunn student Stanley Kaye, donated important works to the South Dakota Art Museum collection in the 1980s, including this Cornwell painting and Dunn’s "The Visit and Empty Rooms."

John Banvard

"The Castle"

John Banvard (1815 – 1891) became an international figure with his "Gigantic," "Original," "Moving Panorama of the Mississippi," "Missouri and Ohio Rivers," shown during 1846 to 1852 in such cities as Louisville, Boston, New York, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Bath, London and Paris, and before such dignitaries as Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and friends at Windsor Palace.

Banvard returned to America a wealthy man, built “Glenada” on Long Island, and established what became Daly’s Theatre in Manhattan. “Glenada” appears in many of his paintings, including "The Castle," usually in an imaginary European setting.

He lost his fortune in the Panic of 1877 and in 1880 moved to Watertown where a son lived. There he painted, produced a diorama of moving paintings, sounds, and lights, "The Burning of Columbia," and wrote poetry under the pseudonym, Peter Pallette.

Madeline Ritz

"Abandoned Wisconsin Cheese Factory"

Madeline Ritz (1903 - 1972) was head of the art department at �ձ�av��Ƶ from 1945 - 1969. She brought extensive experience to her role, having received her M.A. from Columbia University and her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. The Madeline Ritz Memorial Art Scholarship was established for �ձ�av��Ƶ art students after her passing and the �ձ�av��Ƶ student art gallery was named in her honor in 1977.

Ritz was an early promoter of the Dunn collection at �ձ�av��Ƶ and a central figure in fundraising for the museum. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she gave tours of the Dunn collection then housed in the �ձ�av��Ƶ Pugsley Student Union and organized the sale of Dunn reproductions. By 1965 proceeds from reproductions sales amounted to $30,000, which went directly to the museum capital campaign. Read more and see photos of Pugsley Student Union's "Dunn galleries."

Ritz’s "Abandoned Wisconsin Cheese Factory" likely dates to the 1940s or 1950s and is one of her strongest known works.

Tim Steele

"Smoke Head"

Tim Steele is professor emeritus of graphic design and former director of The School of Design at �ձ�av��Ƶ. Steele’s artist statement from the period of "Smoke Head," said “The idea of paint first became real for me as an apprentice house painter. I watched over and over as new skins of paint were applied to both new and existing construction. The new coats of paint at once hid all evidence of the past, while at the same time creating a new image. As an artist, I explore paint and construction as a means to creating personal images.”

Former South Dakota Art Museum director, Joe Stuart was a great admirer of Steele’s artwork. In 1988 he wrote, “There is a breezy sort of madness in [Steele’s] work, as if Van Gogh were alive, not too well, and living in Venice, California. Madness or not, my wife and I have his work in our personal collection, and I am sure he will be represented in this museum’s collection in the near future.”

Indeed, the museum acquired "Smoke Head" the following year with funds donated by the South Dakota Art Museum Guild. To this day, the Guild continues to allocate a portion of member dues for artwork acquisition by the museum.

Dale Lamphere

"Young Long Soldier"

Dale Lamphere currently resides in Sturgis and is the South Dakota Artist Laureate. He has been a professional artist, sculptor and designer for over 45 years. His work is represented in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and he has completed over 50 large-scale public works.

Lamphere works in both figurative and abstract styles. His first works were assemblages of wood, canvas, metal and stone. But, he said, “I longed for something more immediately expressive and began working with clay, soon moving to cast bronze.”

This bronze portrait of Martin Long Soldier was modeled during Long Soldier’s rests between poses for Lamphere’s "." Lamphere remembered, “we took a break and Martin walked to the south door of the studio. The low afternoon sun illuminated his distinctive features and the wind blew back his hair. I can still hear Martin’s twinkling chuckle the first time he saw the result of that moment in bronze.”

How I Got Here, From There

Watch this video of his Dec. 15, 2020 live studio tour and talk for the South Dakota Art Museum Guild.

Jes W. Schlaikjer

"The Boy in Red"

Jes W. Schlaikjer (1897 – 1982) was born on the maiden voyage of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse to the United States and raised on a homestead near Carter in Tripp County. He served in Army intelligence during World War I. Afterwards, he studied in France, at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Harvey Dunn and Dean Cornwell. Schlaikjer and his wife Gladys DeGroot settled in New York and became successful magazine illustrators.

During World War II Schlaikjer was a War Department artist at the Pentagon, where he designed posters for the military and Red Cross. He also completed portraits of military brass, including Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur.

"The Boy in Red" dates from a later period in his career, when he established a portrait studio in Washington, D.C. Schlaikjer painted an alternate version of this portrait, as evidenced by a photograph in the museum archives. The identity of the sitter is unknown although his surname was possibly McCullom.

Learn more about Schlaikjer and see examples of his poster illustrations and portraits in John E. Rychtarik’s (retired South Dakota Art Museum Exhibitions Curator) article on the artist: "."

Ada B. Caldwell

"Estes Park"

Ada Caldwell (1869-1938) is a seminal South Dakota teacher, artist and arts advocate. As �ձ�av��Ƶ professor of art from 1899-1936, Caldwell built art appreciation on campus and in the community. Perhaps best known as the first art instructor of Harvey Dunn, Caldwell’s impact on the arts in South Dakota is far-reaching and under-examined. Throughout almost her entire tenure, Caldwell brought annual traveling exhibits of artwork for display in the �ձ�av��Ƶ Art Department. These exhibits were open to the public and offered the Brookings community an early opportunity for art appreciation.

An April 1940 retrospective exhibit of Caldwell’s artwork prompted the first formal record of a need for a state art museum.

Caldwell likely completed "Estes Park" during the summer she studied under Birger Sandzén at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It displays the broad, loose, Post-Impressionist style Caldwell embraced as a result of those studies. Learn more about Ada Caldwell here: Ada Caldwell Collection and Biography.

unknown artist, Ojibwa

"untitled (dress)"

The Frank and Anna Dudeck Memorial Collection of Native American Art was assembled 1914 – 1927. During those years Frank owned and operated the Opitz general store in Peever, South Dakota and traded with Native American neighbors for materials in the collection. The collection includes 120 objects, primarily of Eastern Sioux and Ojibwa origin.

Frank Dudeck was born in 1878 in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. His family settled in northeastern South Dakota about 1894, following the opening of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indian Reservation lands. In Peever, Dudeck taught, served as the school principal and postmaster, published the local newspaper, and operated the Opitz Store. He married Anna Laurie O’Bryan, a native of the Morris, Minnesota area. Two daughters were born from the union, Irene “Jerry” Abel (1909 – 2002) of Brookings, South Dakota and Florence Dahlner (1911 - 1999) of Port Orchard, Washington. Frank Dudeck died in 1957 and Anna Dudeck in 1974. With their passing, the collection was transferred to their daughters.

In 1980, the Frank and Anna Dudeck Collection was loaned to the South Dakota Art Museum. Soon after, a traveling exhibition consisting of a selection of twenty-five objects from the collection was organized. Throughout the 1980s, the museum exhibited portions of the collection in the Native American Art gallery.

In 1993, Abel and Dahlner donated the entire collection to the South Dakota Art Museum.

Ojibwas of the Upper Midwest like the Navajo in the Southwest, have made extensive use of velvet cloth supplied by white traders. Ojibwas have shown a preference for black velvet, which seems to be an ideal background for their spectacular floral beadwork designs as seen in this dress dating to circa 1915.

Bruce Doyle

untitled 

Bruce Doyle (1903 – 1983) was a North Dakota native who studied under Margaret Cable, director of the University of North Dakota Ceramics Department. In 1937, Cable led a six-month ceramics course in southwestern South Dakota, spending most of her time at Pine Ridge. That same year Doyle came to head Pine Ridge Pottery at the Pine Ridge High School. During his three years there, Doyle installed two large kilns and taught throwing and molding. His students included three sisters, Ella Irving, Olive Cottier and Bernice Talbot who continued making pottery into the 1980s.

According to the donor, this piece dates to the 1950s, after Doyle settled in Taos, New Mexico.

Marion J. and Lila Nelson donated 258 pieces of pottery produced by Pine Ridge, Sioux and Rushmore Potteries to the South Dakota Art Museum. Marion was a scholar of Scandinavian and American art, who brought particular attention to art potteries of the Midwest. Lila was a weaver, teacher, and active member in the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. The Nelsons also staffed the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, IL, where Marion was director and Lila was the textile curator for over twenty years. Read more about Lila in marking her death at 93.

Nathanial "Nat" Cole

"Dakota Siding"

Nathanial S. “Nat” Cole (1919 – 1989) was associate professor of art at �ձ�av��Ƶ from 1962 – 1970. A native of Cardin, Oklahoma, Cole completed his M.F.A. in 1952 at the Kansas City Art Institute.

After leaving South Dakota, he served 19 years as associate professor of Art at Missouri Southern State College, Joplin. A colleague remembered, “Nat spent his life trying to give his students as much as he knew. He was kind, quiet, and never had a bad word for anybody. He was always available to his students and was a very patient, caring and understanding man.”

"Dakota Siding" was donated to the museum in 1995 by Cole’s widow, Ruth, and is one of three works by the artist in the permanent collection.

James Eisentrager

"Zuider #20"

James Eisentrager (1929 – 2002) received his B.A. in 1951 from Augustana College (now Augustana University) in Sioux Falls and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1961. He was a professor of art at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln from 1961 until his retirement in 1996. Eisentrager painted representationally until 1968 and then his works became more geometric and mathematical through a focus on geometric principles and theories of root rectangles. He used color to striking effect at times and described himself as a “structuralist,” identifying with the anti-expressionist tradition of geometric abstraction. “My work is about structure, composition, proportion, balance and equilibrium. These are not emotions, but they interest me.”

In 1996 the artist gifted three of his paintings to the museum, underlining the ties he maintained to South Dakota.

Laura Rodgers

In 1998, the permanent collection was moved out of the building in preparation for a renovation and expansion project. Lisa Scholten became the museum’s first curator of collections that year, after working two years as a consultant on the Marghab Linen Collection. During the move, Scholten particularly admired this Laura Rodgers (1870-1958) painting as it captured “so many senses” — the feeling of wind and heat, and the smell of burning trees and ground covering. She also noticed that the painting had come to the museum in need of conservation treatment.

She contacted the donors, twin brothers and business partners , who had grown up with the painting in their parents’ living room. The Engebretsons agreed to fund the painting’s conservation treatment. Trained conservators at the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis repaired tears and losses in the canvas and removed a heavy grime layer.

Rodger's painting was the first of many works conserved during Scholten’s tenure at the museum. From 1998-2018, she coordinated the conservation of 65 works by Harvey Dunn and wrote grants to fund the treatment of works by Paul Goble and Ada Caldwell as described in this 2015 news release: "South Dakota Art Museum receives grant to conserve Ada Caldwell artwork."

The museum continues to focus on preservation of the permanent collection. In 2020, five works on paper by Harvey Dunn were conserved, allowing them to be in the exhibition, "ALL DUNN: The Complete Harvey Dunn Collection." If you would like to help fund current conservation priorities, contact Taylor McKeown or , denoting your gift for conservation funding.

unknown, Oglala Sioux

untitled (women’s breastplate)

This breastplate and a beaded dress not currently on display originally belonged to Maggie Red Bear (c. 1878 - ?). The pair have important provenance and many ties to the museum. The dress and breastplate were passed down to Maggie Red Bear’s adopted daughter, Emma Amiotte (1913 – 1997), aunt of Arthur Amiotte, an important Lakota artist whose collage, "Different Worlds," can also be seen in this exhibition. Emma Amiotte was another important Lakota artist, whose dolls are represented in the permanent collection. After being sold, the dress was purchased from the Parsons Indian Trading Post and Museum by the South Dakota Museum Art Guild, in 1991, to be donated to the museum. The breastplate was sold to O.J. Lair and then purchased by Cathy and Ken Vogele to be donated to the museum in 1998. The Vogeles recently donated their important collection of American Indian art and artifacts to the museum and the exhibit of moccasins, baby carriers and dolls are on display in The Cathy and Ken Vogele Collection.

Florence M. Bruhn

"Shingles"

Florence M. Bruhn (1910-1999) was raised in Platte. Her informal art training began under her father Henry, who was a photographer and amateur artist. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of South Dakota, and took additional training at universities in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and Winnipeg. In 1939, she moved to Watertown and worked as the public-school art teacher there until her retirement.

Her 1999 obituary stated, “encouragement, integrity, strength and commitment were among the gifts she gave her students. She not only taught art, drama and related subjects, but she taught her students how to set a goal and how to achieve it.”

"Shingles" shows Central City, Colorado, a mining town which was settled in 1859. Bruhn likely visited the area during her summer studies at the University of Colorado Denver. By that time, the area’s gold deposits had depleted and Central City’s population had dwindled to a few hundred residents. This is one of three paintings gifted to the museum from the artist’s estate.

Charles Hargens

untitled

Charles Hargens (1893-1997) painted this cover illustration for the book "Treasure Coach from Deadwood" by Allan Vaughan Elston in 1962. The artist gifted his preliminary sketches for the painting to the museum in 1997 and his son donated this painting in 2000.

Hargens was born in Hot Springs and spent much of his childhood in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As a child, he received painting lessons from the Omaha portrait painter, Albert Rothery, in exchange for odd jobs, and would spend entire days at the Art Institute of Chicago while accompanying his father on business trips to the city.

Hargens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and received the distinguished Cresson Fellowship to study abroad in Paris. He moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1940, where he worked for the rest of his life. He regularly returned to Hot Springs, spending time at rodeos and visiting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Hargens believed the work he created while in South Dakota “had an authentic look which could be obtained in no other manner.”

He is renowned for his scenes of the Old West. His prolific outputs included illustrations for over 300 books, 3,000 magazines and many advertisements.

Hargens was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell in 1982. He had a long friendship with Leland Case, founder of the Friends of the Middle Border, Inc., and editor of "The Rotarian." Case encouraged Hargens to donate his works to the Friends of the Middle Border Museum (now , where a substantial collection of his work is now housed.

 

Julia A. Day

"Sucker"

After a major renovation, expansion and two-year closure, the South Dakota Art Museum reopened its doors in December 2000. Exhibits Curator, Tilly Laskey, devised the "South Dakota Artist Series" as part of the new exhibition schedule. With it the staff aimed to show South Dakota art of the new century, featuring artists that were pushing the limits.

Julia A. Day (b. 1965) and Bob H. Miller (b. 1953) featured in the inaugural show. The exhibition signaled that the museum was entering a more contemporary focus in the 21st century. Julia Day received her B.A. in sculpture at the University of South Dakota where her father John A. Day was the longtime director of the art department and University gallery. She completed her M.F.A. in sculpture from Louisiana State University and currently lives in Washington.

An excerpt from her artist’s statement at the time reads:

"My work is an ongoing investigation of the cause and effect of experiences and the relationship of experience to intellect, biology, heredity and environment. The figurative references in the pieces stem from two direct sources: first, the pervasive body-consciousness of our culture, and second, a deep personal connection to humanitarian values and concerns which has been an equally defining characteristic of my identity…

The physicality of the pieces and their awkward, imperfect natures speak of humanity, empathy, compassion, strength and weakness. Some pieces appear to have created themselves partly as a result of their own use."

"Sucker" exhibited in that inaugural show and was a later gift from the artist. Day said the sculpture represents a “ridiculous or dysfunctional system that gives evidence of having been used and misused. We question the history of this contraption, which appears simultaneously familiar and strange.”

Arthur Amiotte

"Different Worlds"

Arthur Amiotte (b. 1942) was born on the . He credits his work in tribal arts to living on the reservation and being with his family members as they participated in traditional art forms and ceremonies. Dakota artist Oscar Howe inspired him to utilize his Lakota culture in his artworks. Amiotte is a highly sought after author and lecturer on Native American arts and contemporary American Indian art and the recipient of many awards, including a Getty Foundation Grant; a Bush Leadership Fellowship; the South Dakota Governor’s Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Arts; and the Lifetime Achievement Award as Artist and Scholar from the Native American Art Studies Association. His career as one of the most influential artists portraying Lakota life, thought and philosophy in the Northern Plains Region spans four decades.

In the summers of 2013 and 2014, the South Dakota Art Museum hosted a workshop developed by the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS). The workshop offered participants the opportunity to learn about Lakota history and culture through presentations, readings and discussions, as well as hands-on experiences with Lakota artworks and artifacts from the museum’s collections.

Jerry Ross Barrish

"Scarlet"

"Scarlet," a found object sculpture by Jerry Ross Barrish (b. 1939) of San Francisco, California, was included in "Dames," a 2002 exhibition of his work at the South Dakota Art Museum. It was then purchased by Henry H. Corning, a friend of the artist, and donated to the permanent collection.

Barrish collects found objects, most often made of plastic, from the beaches, roads and recycling centers around his native San Francisco. He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied filmmaking. In the 1980s he wrote, directed and edited three feature-length narrative films: "Dan’s Motel "(1981), "Recent Sorrows" (1984) and "Shuttlecock" (1989). After taking part in an artist residency program in Berlin, Barrish returned to San Francisco where he unexpectedly found inspiration in the simple cast-off pieces that littered the local beaches. These materials became the focus of his art-making. He still lives and works in Pacifica, near San Francisco.

Former Director Lynn Verschoor remembered the Dames exhibition, “evolved as Jerry Barrish and I toured his San Francisco studio. The two-story structure is home to literally hundreds of colorful sculptures. It houses a menagerie of cats, dogs, birds and horses as well as a cast of characters including angels, musicians, movie stars and artists. We began the process by selecting some of Barrish’s favorite pieces. After several hours of looking and discussion, we decided to create Dames, an exhibition based on his depiction of women. The title Dames illuminates the humor and pathos embodied in these delightful figures. Barrish is a sensitive observer who communicates irony through the manipulation of cast-offs. These pieces are psychological portraits created through the subtle nuance of posture and body language.”

unknown, Standing Rock Sioux  

untitled (Strong Heart Society rattle), early 20th century

This rattle was given to Ben Reifel on July 4, 1935, on the occasion of his initiation into the "Cante Tinza" (Strong Heart or Brave Heart) Warrior Society.  

Members of the Strong Heart society were sworn to codes of moral character including self-control, fearlessness and a duty to care for the poor.  Their purpose was to be physically, emotionally and spiritually able to defend the tribe whenever needed. Sitting Bull (c. 1831 – 1890), a Hunkpapa Lakota, was a famous leader of the Strong Heart Warrior Society. 

Ben Reifel (1906-1990) was born on the Rosebud Reservation to William Reifel, a German-American and Lucy Lilly Burning Breast, Brule Sioux. He graduated from South Dakota State College (now University) in 1932. Following his graduation, he began a tenure at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which was interrupted from 1942-1945 to serve in the U.S. Army, and again from 1949-1952 to attend Harvard University where he obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in Public Administration. In 1960, Reifel left the BIA to run for Congress. He was elected by a substantial margin and became the first person of Lakota descent to serve in the US Congress. He served five terms before his retirement in 1971.

Reifel was a great supporter of the arts. He established the first Native American collection at the Museum in 1977 by loaning his personal collection for display. His collection included a small but impressive array of Plains art objects, many that had been family pieces or gifts to him during his years of BIA service. This rattle and eleven other objects in the collection were permanently donated to the Museum in 2004 by Reifel’s daughter, Loyce Reifel Anderson.

Reifel served on the South Dakota Art Museum Board of Trustees from 1977 until his death in 1990. During that period, he accurately predicted that his collection would attract others to the Museum. Interest in his collection encouraged donors like the Thorburns and Dudecks to find a permanent home for their Native American collections. Reifel’s work enabled the Museum to represent, preserve and celebrate the rich artistic traditions and cultural values of Oceti Sakowin communities.

Explore photos and writings about Ben Reifel on �ձ�av��Ƶ’s Archives and Special Collections

D. George Prisbe-Przybysz

"Cheyenne Cedars"

D. George Prisbe-Przybysz is a native of South Dakota and currently resides at Hanna. The artist believes that living in South Dakota affects his art, “most dramatically. As a landscape painter, I am greatly influenced and seduced by the natural world. We are free to find our own voice out here. Rembrandt said ‘wherever you are born, your birthplace offers more beauty than you will ever be able to paint during your whole life.’”

"Cheyenne Cedars" was purchased from the "South Dakota Governor’s First Biennial Art Exhibition." The museum’s permanent collection includes nine intaglio prints from the artist’s graduate studies at Ohio University-Athens and three landscape paintings. Most recently, Prisbe-Przybysz donated an important landscape painting from his "Dakota Tonalism" series.

Warren Rosser

Slip-Wear

Warren Rosser (b. 1942) is the William T. Kemper Distinguished Professor of Painting at the Kansas City Art Institute and served as the chair of the Painting Department until his retirement. He was born in the UK in South Wales and came to the US in 1972. Trained as a painter, he made sculpture and mixed media constructions for many years before coming back to painting in 1978. 

This 2000 painting, "Slip-Wear,"was in the exhibition "Warren Rosser: To be Continued... Selected Paintings from 1998 to 2004" at the South Dakota Art Museum. It included paintings Rosser created after his transition from three-dimensional work. These large, colorful acrylic paintings were constructed using palette knives, stencils, squeegees and masking tape, in lieu of paintbrushes, and feature the elliptical motif that is a hallmark of this series of work.

About the works created in this transition period, Rosser has stated: “A lot of earlier work, particularly the sculptural work, was layered and rather loaded with intellectually driven decision making. I wanted the new painting to reflect a different attitude, to have a certain freshness.” In regards to moving from oil paint applied with brushes to alternative applicators and acrylic paint, Rosser states, “I felt the gestures the hand was making were rehashing a certain language that no longer felt appropriate... it was almost like my hand was taking me back to what I knew and I wanted to go to a place that I didn't know.”

Learn more about Rosser and his recent work, visit .

Yan Zhou Xu

"The Drought"

Yan Zhou Xu was born in Qin Dao City, China. He earned a Master of Fine Art degree from Tulane University. He has studied and taught at the Shangdong Institute of Arts and the Central Institute of Fine Arts in China; at Luther College in Canada; and at Newcomb Art College in the United States. A major figure in the school of rural realistic painting in China and master of contemporary realism, he became a member of the Chinese National Society of Artists at the young age of 24. When he was 28, he became the first artist in China both to publish a monograph and to have a solo exhibition in the Chinese National Fine Arts Museum. In 1990, he became the youngest visiting Fine Arts Professor ever invited to North America by the Canadian Government. He is also the only Asian artist to win the Four Arts Awards in the 68-year history of that Palm Beach, Florida show.

Yan Zhou Xu has had many one-man exhibitions in museums and major galleries. This painting was included in a 2006 exhibition of his work at the South Dakota Art Museum, and subsequently purchased for the permanent collection. He currently lives and works in Loveland, Colorado.

Dwayne Wilcox

"untitled"

Dwayne Wilcox (b. 1975) was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and currently resides in Rapid City. He has been drawing since high school. Wilcox is a self-taught artist who has received guidance from other artists. He admits that it is hard to consider him “self-taught” when he has learned so much from others and continues to learn every day. Wilcox’s “ledger-style” drawings and paintings reflect a contemporary way of life—often depicting pow-wows, people preparing for dances, families spending time together and everyday scenes. This drawing is an example of the good humor and skill for caricature that Wilcox brings to his contemporary interpretation of traditional ledger art.

Roger Broer

"Keeper of the Darkness"

Roger Broer was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1945. The economic hardships of his family led to his removal from his Oglala Lakota mother and his placement in an orphanage. Broer was adopted at two years old into a family of a German blacksmith and raised in rural Randolph, Nebraska. 

He pursued a reconnection with his Indian heritage – a spiritual learning process to awaken things already known. After military service, he returned to South Dakota to spend time with relatives on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 1971, his formal art education began at the age of twenty-six when Broer enrolled at Eastern Montana College. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts with Extended Fine Arts Degree, he earned credits toward a master’s degree in fine arts at Central Washington University. He has worked full-time as an artist since 1979.

During his career, Broer has received over 50 awards in National Shows, including the Northern Plains Tribal Arts and Northern Plains Indian Market, Trail of Tears Show and the Red Cloud Show. In addition, he conducts workshops throughout the United States. Broer has displayed his artwork in more than 35 one-man shows and over 100 group shows. His paintings are featured in both national and international collections including the Department of Interior, Washington, D.C. and Pierre Cardin, Paris, France. 

Broer and his wife, Merlene, currently reside in Hill City.

About his works, Roger Broer states, "I think, sometimes, when I am alone, usually when I am making art, about the elements in nature around me.  I like to ponder relationships. How everything has its own significant place… how everything is somehow related to everything else. How…. most importantly, we don’t readily understand these relationships, yet if one element is missing, an emptiness exists."

Brett Anderson

"Internal Dissention"

Brett Anderson grew up in central Missouri and received his B.F.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2002 he completed his M.F.A. in printmaking at the University of South Dakota. He now lives in Evansville, Indiana where he is associate professor of art at Southern Indiana University.

“Satire is an important element in my work,” says Anderson, “and the people most examined in its scrutiny are others like me, those with a saturated exposure to Saturday morning cartoons, that binge-watch Sci-Fi and mash buttons on game consoles. An interest in narrative allegory and mythic archetypes must compete with vernacular memes and cheesy clichés. Without trying to become too didactic, I hope the work strikes a balance between the visually alluring and the morally ugly; popular culture and the highfalutin; the sacred and the profane.”

This work was a gift from Norman Gambill (1941-2016). Gambill was a scholar of art history and film studies, and head of the Visual Arts Department at �ձ�av��Ƶ for 26 years until his retirement in 2010.

Jeannie French

"untitled (fish and antlers)"

Jeannie French (1952-2018) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, studied at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater and Madison and taught at Black Hills State University from 1984-90. She taught ceramics, drawing and 3D design for 28 years in the School of Design at �ձ�av��Ƶ.

French’s work was included in the 2017 exhibition "Women at Work: South Dakota Artists" at the South Dakota Art Museum. She shared this Artist Statement at that time: 

"It could be a conversation replayed, an image recalled, a thought tossed around, a dream remembered, a face reinvented or even just a moment stopped in time. It could be from yesterday, today or a long time ago. Soon an idea begins to emerge that I want to capture and transform into a story I can tell in my work. As I visualize the many possibilities, shapes and drawings begin to appear in my mind and in my sketchbook. Soon my hands are moving the clay and my imaginings give way to the physical form.

I am fascinated with the process, from the moment the idea develops until the time the work is finished. The physical closeness with the material is essential for personal satisfaction. To push, pull and stretch the clay as it takes its final form is exciting. And I love color; I always have. It’s Crayola time all over again. Decorating the surface gives immediacy to a process that can steal hours from the clock. The clay is the canvas, ready to quickly accept the final interpretation as I build up the layers of color, watching one disappear as another appears. Each ending is a surprise but finally, the tale is told and the work is ready to share."

James Rosenquist

"Miles" from the "America: The Third Century" portfolio

Over three decades Neil C. Cockerline assembled an important collection of original fine art prints representing artists of the 1960s, 70s and early 80s. Cockerline is a Midwesterner by birth, studied at Alma College in Alma, Michigan, and received his Master of Arts degree from the State University of New York-Buffalo. He settled on a professional career as a museum consultant and fine arts conservator. From the 1980s on, he scoured auctions, visited galleries, made friends with dealers and artists—all the while collecting by the mantra, “Acquire what you love and love what you acquire.”

Having worked with the South Dakota Art Museum, Cockerline concluded that its facility, staff and standards met the qualifications he wanted for a permanent home for his collection. Since its donation, the collection has provided tremendous opportunities for museum visitors. Prints from the collection are often featured in permanent collection exhibitions and shared with visiting �ձ�av��Ƶ School of Design students. The Cockerline Collection is comprised of 532 objects, including works by Leonard Baskin, Red Grooms, Alex Katz, Lee Krasner, Alice Neel, Lowell Nesbitt, Beverly Pepper and Robert Rauschenberg.

This print by James Rosenquist (1933 - 2017) was Cockerline’s first major acquisition. Having started his art career by painting the billboard landscape of the U.S. highways, Rosenquist became inspired by the iconography associated with American culture. In finding his own perspective, he pieced together compositions using various advertisements, found objects and people’s faces. Although his works are patchwork quilts of Pop culture, personal anecdotes often lie beneath the surface imagery.

Paul Peterson

"A Barn's Portrait"

Paul Peterson (b. 1967) grew up on a farm near Wakonda, South Dakota and currently lives in Sturgis. His background provided unique insights into the evolution of the Eastern South Dakota landscape and farming, which is reflected in his abstracted scenes and bold color choices.

A Barn’s Portrait was purchased from the "South Dakota Governor’s 5th Biennial Art Exhibition." The South Dakota Arts Council provides grant funding for this important traveling exhibition, including a purchase award for each participating venue.

Peterson’s artist statement in the "5th Biennial" catalog read, “Growing up in Southeastern South Dakota has given me an intimate understanding of rural life and a unique perspective as an artist. Viewers of my work will not only perceive a sense of place but will also experience the complicated and sometimes contradictory feelings many rural residents experience over their lifetimes. The paintings are colorful, emotionally autobiographical and reflect my feeling of connection to the land.”

"A Barn’s Portrait"

He discussed this painting and his process with Kacey Klocek, a student in Christine Stewart’s �ձ�av��Ƶ Honors Comp II class. Watch the interview.

Andrew Standing Soldier

"untitled (woman on horseback with travois)"

Andrew Standing Soldier was born in 1917 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota and died in 1967 in Omaha, Nebraska. He studied mural painting at the Oglala Community College in Pine Ridge and during 1939-41 was a mural painter in the Dakotas, Idaho and Nebraska under the Works Progress Administration.

He returned to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1940s to work almost exclusively in watercolor. He completed much of this work as commissions, including several primers for American Indian children sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. His paintings primarily depict contemporary life on the Reservation, portraits of notable Native Americans and of ranchers’ prize livestock.

In 1961, Standing Soldier and his family moved to the Reservation border town of Gordon, Nebraska. There he found a patron in Douglas Borman, a local auto dealer. Borman supplied a place for Standing Soldier to paint in the auto showroom and proceeded to collect a significant body of the artist’s work.

Robert Jackson

"Cube (What is Art About?)"

Robert Jackson (b. 1964) is a contemporary still life painter who lives and works in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. A selection of his trompe l’oeil (trick of the eye) paintings were exhibited at the South Dakota Art Museum in 2014. The artist subsequently gifted this painting to the permanent collection.

Oscar Howe

"War Dancer"

Oscar Howe (1915 - 1983) was born at Joe Creek on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. Known as Mazuha Hokshina or Trader Boy to his people, Howe rose from poverty and overcame illness to become an internationally respected artist and teacher.

After graduating from the Pierre Indian Boarding School, Howe enrolled in the famous art program at the Santa Fe Indian School. There he was encouraged by Dorothy Dunn, founding director of The Studio, to take pride in his cultural heritage by painting scenes from the everyday life, history and legends of his tribe in a flat-art style which she felt represented Indian culture.

Howe would ultimately develop his own unique signature style of utilizing lines (linear, rectilinear, or curvilinear), which gave a dynamic, fluid movement to his paintings. His work is seen as a bridge between Euro-American and Native American cultures.

As Howe’s work evolved, he faced strong resistance to it because of its modern and innovative style. In 1958, Howe’s work was rejected by the annual Philbrook juried Indian art competition in Tulsa, Oklahoma as “non-Indian.” 

In protest, the artist asked: “Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting that is the most common way? Are we to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated to as the Indian has always been, put on reservations and treated like a child and only the White Man knows what is best for him…?”

"War Dancer" was purchased from the artist by Jeanette Lusk. Lusk was a longtime Huron resident, owner of the "Huron Daily Plainsman," and first president of the South Dakota Art Museum Board of Trustees. The painting descended in her family and the museum purchased it in 2016.

Frances Cranmer Greenman

"untitled (American Indian with pipe)"

Frances Willard Cranmer was born in Aberdeen on June 28, 1890, and was named after Frances E. Willard, the founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Greenman's mother was president of the South Dakota chapters of the WCTU and the Equal Suffrage Association before the family moved to Minneapolis.

Greenman began her art training at the Wisconsin Academy of Art at age 15. She then studied for four years at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C., and briefly at the Minneapolis School of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.

Greenman’s most influential teachers were the fashionable American impressionist William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, the leader of the so-called “Ashcan School.” By 1921 she had established herself as a society painter in Minneapolis. In her autobiography, "Higher Than the Sky" (1954), she counts herself among painters such as El Greco, Frans Hals and Augustus John, “the drunks—the Dionysians—who paint in a bacchanalia of emotional abandon,” as opposed to the Apollonians, the “cool, smooth tight painters: Canaletto, Holbein and Ingres.” Greenman wryly called herself “one of the much lesser loosers.”

For a few years after this turning point, Greenman produced portraits that were sometimes aggressively stylized (and not well-received), but gradually she moved to a sketchier, more flattering style in her portraits of the rich and famous celebrities, including the actress Mary Pickford. Throughout her career, Greenman maintained a permanent studio at the Hampshire Arms Hotel in Minneapolis, MN, as well as studios in Washington, D.C., New York City and Hollywood, California. It is said that she used to sing as she painted to help relax her subjects. Greenman taught at the Minneapolis School of Art from 1941 - 1943 and was also an art columnist and critic for the "Minneapolis Sunday Tribune" (now the Star Tribune). She died in 1981 in Medina, Minnesota.

In 1912, Greenman lived briefly with a Native American family on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwest Minnesota. She explained, “I was planning to be the world’s best painter of Indians.” This desire did not cement, and she soon returned to portrait painting in Minneapolis. This work is dated 1916, suggesting that the artist continued to paint subjects from her time at White Earth.

Peter Reichardt

"C.P.C. 4"

Peter Reichardt is an artist and educator who makes work within the expanded field of drawing. Born in Texas, he received his B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Art in drawing in 2005 and his M.F.A. from Washington State University in printmaking in 2007. He has exhibited his work across the United States and is a featured artist at Ipso Gallery, Fresh Produce, in Sioux Falls. He received an Austin Critics Table Award for his collaborative installation entitled Camp Base Camp and was featured in the national publication, "New American Paintings." He is a Lecturer in the School of Design at �ձ�av��Ƶ.

This drawing was included in "imPULSE," a two-person exhibition of works by Reichardt and Andres Torres at the South Dakota Art Museum in 2017. Reichardt shared this artist statement at the time:

"My studio practice revolves around image-making: connecting play and discovery into focused (and sometimes intentionally unfocused) visual comments on the theme of pictorial conventions and collage through drawing. Subject matter within my body of work pulls fragments of our collected visual past from popular culture, cultural antiquities, sublime landscapes, to the banal everyday.

I face the challenge of constructing imagery that embodies the qualities of human experiences, emotions and perceptions by navigating the physical manipulation of preexisting imagery. Alterations to the source can be subtle or intentionally apparent and are used as a subversive act that allows me to expose the little white lies in the conventions of naturalism and depiction. Relationships are celebrated and exploited to create a fresh dialogue between different parts and its newly constructed whole. By altering the original and its operational nature, I produce an alternative answer to that challenge. Humor and overtones of something more serious might exist in that answer too."

Andy Warhol

"Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)"

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) began his career creating print advertisements. Inspired by the celebrities and logos he saw in magazines, he took the feeling of pop culture and reproduced it tenfold. Warhol experimented with many mediums, including painting, printmaking, sculpture and film. His most famous works include his portraits of famous figures and Campbell soup cans.

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was a reigning Hollywood film star in the 1950s and early '60s. Warhol immortalized Monroe as an icon of the 20th century in a series of paintings and prints, using a publicity still from the 1951 film "Niagara."   

In 1967, Warhol formed his publishing and printmaking business, Factory Additions. The "Marilyn Monroe" portfolio included 10 versions of this screenprint printed in editions of 250. This impression has unique ties to the South Dakota Art Museum. The museum’s first director, William Landwehr (1941-2018), purchased the print for his personal collection in the late 1960s or early '70s. It was later sold to Mel Spinar, �ձ�av��Ƶ professor emeritus of art, and donated to the permanent collection.