Recently Acquired
The Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, Wisconsin, has recently acquired a major new work from modern wildlife painter Tom Uttech. The museum honored the artist on June 15 at the 2019 Art Ball, an event held to raise funds for the museum’s acquisition of new artwork. Uttech’s piece, titled NIN GASSINSIBINGWE, is one of the artist’s famous landscapes scenes filled with hundreds of varieties of birds. The painting is part of Uttech’s Migration series.
“With this painting, MOWA joins other major museums including the Smithsonian and Crystal Bridges as institutions owning prominent Migration paintings,” the museum said in a statement. “Laurie Winters, executive director of MOWA, presented Uttech with the Hyde Award for Wisconsin Art. This award recognizes individuals and organizations for their significant influence on the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the future of Wisconsin art. Tom Uttech is the first artist to receive the award.”
Uttech is one of the leading landscape painters working in the United States. His work is inspired by the woods of Northern Wisconsin and the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, where the lakes, forests and wildlife are untouched by humans. “His devotion to nature is apparent in each piece, as Uttech thoughtfully recreates what it feels like to be in those woods at dawn and dusk when the mystical characters of the forest come to life,” the museum states. “Uttech’s use of Ojibwe titles enhances the sense of mystery and pays homage to Native American culture.
This fall Uttech will be the subject of a major retrospective at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. The artist has been represented by the Tory Folliard Gallery since 1992.
Calling all Western Art museums! Have a recently acquired painting or sculpture? Email the details to editor@westernartcollector.com.