About the Collection:

In fall of 2010, Lawrence University received a collection of works by Schomer Lichtner (1905-2006)and Ruth Grotenrath (1912-1988). from the Kohler Art Foundation. Known as Milwaukee's "first couple of painting" and major Wisconsin artists, they had prolific and charismatic artistic careers. Lichtner studied art at various institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the New York Student's league and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He then taught art and completed commissions or the Federal Works Progress Administration. Grotenrath also studied in Wisconsin at the Milwaukee State Teacher's College. The couple created murals across the Midwest for Post Offices in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan while teaching art.

 

In his studio, Lichtner broke from the Wisconsin tradition of following German academic art and worked in a regionalist style particular to his life in Wisconsin.  Lichtner's work is best known for its whimsical subject-matter, with its black and white ink Holstein cows and Ballerinas. The positive nature of much of his work made it well-known and much loved. He is known as the official artist of the Milwaukee Ballet.

 

His wife Ruth Grotenrath shared the same enthusiasm for life.  After her work with Lichtner on the WPA murals, her paintings evolved from somber social-realism to exuberant still-life.  She carefully selected and rendered objects from her immediate surroundings at their Milwaukee home and farm near Holy Hill. Like Lichtner, her later work has bright colors and an uplifting effect on viewers, but remains intensely analytical of the physicality of domestic objects. Her rendering of inanimate objects has a sense of life and boldness found expressive and beautiful to her viewers. Lichtner and Grotenrath shared a passion for life evident in their bodies of work, and these two Wisconsin artists remain a source of pride for the Midwest. 

 

-Margaret L. Pieper LU ‘11