Dynamic Range: Photographs by Bill Tennessen
January 19 – May 12, 2024
Bill Tennessen was born in 1934 and grew up on North 39th Street in Milwaukee. He is a 1956 graduate of Marquette University’s College of Business Administration. Tennessen is a self-taught photographer who began contributing photos to the Milwaukee Community Journal, Wisconsin’s largest African American newspaper, in 1981. He has documented the Ernest Lacy demonstrations, Juneteenth Day celebrations, activities of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and the Ko-Thi Dance Company. He captured many of Milwaukee’s Central City storefront churches and the appearance in town of numerous important cultural and political personalities of our time. He has photographed the Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette University basketball and many other sports and community events.
Dynamic Range includes 48 photographs by Tennessen that highlight Milwaukee’s Black community from the 1980s to the early 2000s. The exhibition was curated by Lynne Shumow (Haggerty Museum Curator for Academic Engagement) in collaboration with Dr. Robert Smith (Marquette University Harry G. John Professor of History and Director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching and Outreach—CURTO) and Mia Phifer (Education and Research Coordinator at America’s Black Holocaust Museum). Additional assistance was provided by Kate Rose, Caroline Bielski, Sebastien Brown, Sophia Furman, Logan Glembin, Niktalia Jules, and Adamali De La Cruz.
Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Marquette University Women’s Council Endowment Fund.
View the exhibition brochure here. Exhibition and brochure design by Daniel Herro (Haggerty Museum Head Designer and Preparator).
Image: Bill Tennessen, American, b. 1934, Jimmy Carter at Milwaukee’s Habitat for Humanity, 1989, 8 x 10 inches, Silver nitrate print, Collection of the artist
Opening Reception
Please join us for a reception celebrating the opening of the Haggerty Museum of Art’s spring 2024 exhibition Dynamic Range: Photographs by Bill TennessenonThursday, January 18, 2024 at 5 p.m.
Gallery Talk
Please join us for a gallery talk by Bill Tennessen at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at the Haggerty. This talk is free and open to the public. Registration details to follow.
Images: (top) Bill Tennessen, American, b. 1934, Untitled, 1989, 8 x 10 inches, Silver nitrate print, Collection of the artist (lower) Bill Tennessen, American, b. 1934, Untitled, 1985, 8 x 10 inches, Silver nitrate print, Collection of the artist
Also on view
Image in Dispute: Dutch & Flemish Art from the Haggerty Museum of Art’s Collection
August 25, 2023 – May 12, 2024Images have a special ability to aid the formation of communities. From national flags to pilgrimage shrines to bumper stickers, images can draw people together for a shared experience and a common cause. But what if some feel that the appeal of images interferes with the community’s spiritual well-being? And what if not everyone agrees?
The question of art’s role in the devotional lives of European Christians took a dramatic turn in 1566, when groups of reform-minded citizens destroyed sacred images in churches throughout the Low Countries (modern Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg). The religious and political debates that followed not only led to the creation of the Dutch Republic but also transformed the professional expectations for artists working in both Catholic- and Protestant-controlled territories. Religious artworks took on new dimensions in their psychological complexity and their address to viewers’ sensory and emotive responses. At the same time, themes that previously had been less prized, such as landscape and portraiture, came to new prominence. This exhibition draws from the Haggerty’s own collection of Dutch and Flemish art to explore artists’ innovative responses to the changes reshaping community identity in the Low Countries between 1560 and 1675.
Image: Jan van den Hoecke, attr. (Antwerp 1611—1651 Antwerp or Brussels), Noli me tangere [Do not touch me], 1630/1640, Oil on panel, 18 x 27 3/16 inches, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman, Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
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