The Milwaukee Art Museum has launched a new exhibition titled "Gertrude and Friends: The Wisconsin Magic Realists" that shines a spotlight on a lesser-known but influential group of artists who challenged conventional artistic norms in the American Midwest during the 1940s. This carefully curated show features seventeen works by artists who, while not a formal movement, shared a distinctive vision that pushed back against the dominant American Regionalism style of their era. The exhibition serves as a companion to the major Gertrude Abercrombie traveling retrospective that originated at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art earlier this year.

Gertrude Abercrombie, who lived from 1909 to 1977, earned colorful nicknames like "the Jazz Witch" and "Queen of Chicago" for her surreal miniature paintings and legendary parties at her Hyde Park brownstone. Her home became a creative hub where artists gathered to exchange ideas and support each other's unconventional work. Abercrombie's paintings depicted dreamlike scenes that blended reality with fantasy, creating an eerie atmosphere that distinguished her from mainstream artists of the period. Her influence extended far beyond her own canvases, as she actively nurtured a community of like-minded creators who embraced magic realism.

The core group included ringleaders John Wilde and Karl Priebe, along with Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier, and Dudley Huppler. These artists maintained close communication despite working in different cities across Wisconsin and Illinois, sharing artistic intentions and supporting each other's careers. Their correspondence reveals a tight-knit community bound by their desire to explore strange, fantastical worlds that disturbed and intrigued viewers. They approached their role as artists in society with playful seriousness, constantly questioning traditional boundaries while celebrating their unique perspectives on the American experience.

A remarkable portrait painted by John Wilde captures the essence of this creative fellowship. The painting shows Priebe standing to the far left alongside Abercrombie, who has her arm around Huppler's shoulder as they share a private joke. The group includes Glasier, Fein, a nude figure described simply as "a friend," intelligence officer and artist Arnold Dadian, and Wilde himself in a checkered blazer that mirrors the checkerboard floor. This work once belonged to Abercrombie, who treasured it so deeply that she kept it on her lap rather than hanging it on a wall, using it to reminisce about their shared moments.

The exhibition intentionally overlaps with the Abercrombie retrospective, which is currently on view at the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine until January 11, 2026, before traveling to the Norton Museum of Art in Florida and then to Milwaukee in March. According to curator Thomas Busciglio-Ritter, this timing creates a "ripple effect" that encourages visitors to explore Abercrombie's circle of friends. The companion show reveals how these artists collectively shifted the dial on American Regionalism by depicting the Midwest through a lens that stretched the limits of traditional realism.

The Wisconsin Magic Realists never held an official group exhibition during their lifetimes, making this gathering of their work particularly significant for contemporary audiences. Their legacy challenges the narrative of American art history by demonstrating that innovative, surrealist-tinged work flourished far from coastal art centers. The exhibition runs until July 2026, offering ample opportunity for visitors to discover how these playful yet profound artists reimagined their world and their place within it.