Art collection donation brings one Union story full circle
When Larry Neckar stopped outside the Porter Butts gallery in the Memorial Union, he didn’t expect to see his brother’s name anywhere in the gallery, much less on a plaque as the first winner of the Porter Butts Creative Arts Award. Neckar decided to contact the Wisconsin Union Art Collection manager, Robin Schmoldt, to see if the Union would like a piece of his brother’s artwork, titled “Space Blooms,” to add to the collection.
Robin jumped at the chance. “It was a perfect marriage of the Union story, of something coming full circle,” she said. Robin describedSpace Blooms as “colorful, 70’s style” serigraphed print. Serigraphy is essentially screen-printing of a photograph onto either paper or cloth. Lee took photos of a chair and then serigraphed them, using bright colors in layers to create a one of a kind piece.
The artwork is currently in storage, awaiting its debut in the new Union South, along with other selections from the art collection. “It is such a neat, unique piece with such a great story that we want to showcase it,” Robin said, “It really creates a link between what was going on artistically on campus in the 1970s (when the original Union South opened) and our brand new Union South.”
Lee had a long history with UW-Madison and with the Wisconsin Union. His MFA collection was created in the midst of student protests and the temporary closure of the university while the campus was occupied by National Guard troops in 1969 and 1970. The collection now hangs in the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
He also designed two editions of the Modine Gunch, a student literary magazine published by the Memorial Union literary committee in the early 1970s. After graduation, he worked as a graphic designer for the Union, as well as for the University of Texas Austin-Huntington Art Gallery. He later branched out and created an interior design firm “French and Neckar” with his partner Jim French. Lee passed away in 1987.
Lee’s work will join the works of many other great artists in the Wisconsin Union Art Collection. Many of the pieces in the collection have Wisconsin roots, though Robin said that has been interpreted very differently over the years.
“For example, we have a piece by Kurt Vonnegut, and you’d normally wonder ‘How is he connected to Wisconsin?’” Robin shares. “But he was one of the students’ most loved Distinguished Lecture Series speakers at the time when he was touring.” The over 1700 piece collection includes works by many other famous artists, such as Diego Rivera, Harvey Littleton, Joan Miro, and Warrington Colescott.
Selections from the collection are always on display in the halls and meeting spaces of the Wisconsin Union. The first art gallery and collection were founded by Porter Butts himself, who believed that art is an important part of the daily lives of Wisconsin Union visitors. The Porter Butts Creative Arts award honors students whose activities demonstrate a contribution to the furtherance of the arts. The award continues to this day.
By Alicia Abercrombie, a senior majoring in journalism and legal studies at UW-Madison and a webmaster for GUTS tutoring service.
