In the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery explore how artists use color to bring their paintings to life. Blooming pink flowers, a swirling river of purple, blue, and green, and an orchestra playing a red song—discover how colors mix and play together to tell their own wonderful story. What color story will you tell?

Ever plant a rainbow? If not, be sure to visit the Kohl’s Art Generation Studio and collaborate on the vegetable garden collage mural. Our rainbow just keeps growing!

And as always you’ll find Story Time and Sketching in the Galleries, featuring works in the Museum Collection by Ellsworth Kelly, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Georgia O’Keeffe, and more. Also don’t forget our popular scavenger hunt!

Have we piqued your curiosity? Stop by anytime Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM-4 PM. Stay two minutes or two hours, or check Upcoming Events for specific details.

Six-year-old Lauren, for example, says she has wanted to be an artist ever since she was “really little.” To help her get started, Lauren and her family stopped by the Milwaukee Art Museum for Sketching in the Galleries, one of the Museum’s many Weekend Family Programs. We interviewed Lauren, with a little help from her family, after the session.

MAM:

What did you like best about the class today?

Lauren:

Drawing Pictures.

MAM:

What drawing did you enjoy today?

Lauren:

Drawing the picture of the outside, when we looked out the window. I like the trees and the rocks. I just like the way they’re shaped. The trees and the lake have straight lines. Straight lines are best.

MAM:

You like straight lines better than curved ones?

Lauren:

Well some things just look better with straight lines.

MAM:

What makes drawing pictures fun?

Lauren:

It’s just fun. I like drawing pictures because you can draw pictures of anything. You can draw them anytime, too.

MAM:

Did you see an artist you really liked today?

Lauren:

Yeah! I like Monet.

MAM:

Does Monet use straight lines?

Lauren:

No! He uses lots of colors. He likes green and purple because they look good together. He draws lily pads, too. Did you know that I got my picture taken in the lily pads?

MAM:

What were the lily pads like?

Lauren:

They were pretty, but the ground under the water was really muddy.

MAM:

Who’s your favorite artist of all?

Lauren:

Georgia O’Keeffe. I just really like her colors.

MAM:

What else do you like when you visit the Museum?

Lauren:

(Asks for help with the name of the glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly). That would be fun to draw! If you drew it with a bottom on it, you could make it look like a squid.

MAM:

Will you be back to the Art Museum soon?

Lauren:

Yeah! You can draw everything here.

Thank you Lauren for taking time and sharing your wonderful artwork with us! And if anyone else is still wondering “What an artist looks like,” an artist looks like you!

If you’d like to be part of the Kohl’s Art Generation, be sure to sign up for our family eNews and receive regular updates on all the family programing at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Here are two pieces from the Milwaukee Art Museum Collection that have a lot in common though they are very different in style. When you look at them what do you see? How are these pictures similar? Both are red, white, and blue with patterns on their surface.

On the left is Jean Dubuffet, one of the most famous French painters and sculpturers of the second half of the 20th century. His Court les rues is beautiful example of his graphic and whimsical style. If you look closely you can imagine that large squiggly blob in the center is a person!

Court les rues or “Court Street” in English probably means that this person is standing on the corner—which makes sense if the brown object to their right is a mailbox, with its white handles and riveted steal frame. The bold colors, graphic stripes, and all the colorful graffiti around them are sure fun to look at don’t you think?

The second piece is a man cut-out and painted on wood titled Youth of Abraham, by celebrated folk artist Howard Finster. The young man, with his business suit is probably on his way to work. Look at all the funny things on his jacket and pants. There are people and places, ghosts, airplanes, and all kinds of curious sayings. What do you see? One message reads, “Stop Look & Live.”

Stop by the Museum Galleries and you’ll surely spot something different each time. Maybe you can come up with your own list of favorites from the Museum Collection?

The exhibit features work from artist Joseph Albers whose “Homage to the Square” paintings examine color interaction in great detail. As a noted professor and head of the Department of Design at Yale University, Mr. Albers taught others how to explore color as well. You can see some pretty extreme examples from a few of his students in the Sensory Overload exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Works by Richard Anuszkiewicz and Julian Stanczak can really test what you think you see.

Won’t you stop by and have a look? Join us for any of our Weekend Family Programs and you’ll be sure to have a color story all your own. Until then, here are a few fun things to check out:

• Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today.
• Paint with Bomomo!

For more Weekend Family Programs be sure to poke around the Kohl’s Art Generation website and get excited about art!

Monthly Inspiration

Each month our weekend programs take on a new theme. Here is a quick list to get you inspired about the months ahead.

April is All About Color

Celebrate the return of spring as we explore how artists use color to bring their paintings to life! Blooming pink flowers, a swirling river of purple, blue, and green, and an orchestra playing a red song—discover how colors mix and play together to tell their own wonderful story. What color story will you tell?

May Turns to Portraits

Hundreds of faces from different places! Come discover portraits big and small, short and tall, before making your own self-portrait to take home. From old favorites like the Janitor to new Class Pictures by Dawoud Bey, there are so many faces to meet through paintings, photographs, and sculptures at the Museum!

Kids and families will take a journey to discover specific aspects of art. Color Stories, our first exhibition in the newly remodeled space, teaches kids all about the world of color. We have lots of activities on hand and many ways to explore and create your very own color story.

Kids of all ages can see firsthand how colors mix with one another, inspire stories, convey moods, or maybe just fool the eye. See how color can change your environment by walking though the Color Corridor. Explore your perception with 3-D chalk drawings, and learn about color theory by mixing and matching color.

At the Milwaukee Art Museum we have all new Weekend Family Programs for you to enjoy. Be sure to stop by the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery and share your Color Stories with us!

The Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery is open during Museum hours.

Imagine a vehicle that brings creativity and ingenuity into your community—a mobile art experience that’s like an extension of the Milwaukee Art Museum, where kids not only take part in fun projects, but also grow and learn through art. That’s the idea behind Kohl’s Color Wheels, a van that will make appearances at community festivals and other events throughout the summer.

Kohl’s Color Wheels Activities

Paper is a Playground

Kids will create custom “Ally-Gators” and “Bird-In-The-Cage” take-away items, using the artwork from the Kohl’s Art Generation magazine campaign and other similar “one-sheet” art activities. Googly eyes and markers will be provided for ultimate customization. These one-sheet activities are quick and accessible and provide a convenient take-away item (or items) for all patrons.

Splatter Drawings

These “Jackson Pollock-esque” splatter drawings are surprisingly not messy. Use unconventional tools and methods to apply paint to your creation.

Recycled Materials / Animal Sculptures

Always a hit with its novel approach to recycling! Turn found materials into new creations to beautify your world.

Mood Paintings

Ever have a “blue” day or wonder why red and pink are the colors of your Valentine? Color tells us a lot without saying too much. With mood painting activities you can explore a whole range of emotions described simply through color. Find many more color activities in our Color Stories exhibit in the Kohl’s Art Generation Gallery.

Bottle Cap Jewelry

“Renew and Reuse” is a popular theme today. Show your support for getting Green with your creative expression. We’ll have all kinds of material and help on-hand to make very cool necklaces, magnets, and yes, buttons!

So be on the lookout for Kohl’s Color Wheels, we’ll be coming to your Milwaukee-area neighborhood soon!

• Download Ally-Gator
• Download Bird-In-The-Cage