Artist Bernard Perlin was a minority, outsider, gay man, and pursuer of truth, beauty, and justice. Born to Russian Jewish immigrants in 1918, artist-activist Perlin was a talented painter, illustrator, war artist-correspondent, and photographer, who tackled stylistic genres, the horrors of WWII, issues of social justice, and homosexuality with conviction and bravery. His work regularly appeared in popular magazines of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s and was collected by illustrious families and institutions.
While in his early 90s, living in self-exile in Connecticut, he sat with Michael Schreiber and spent countless hours telling his life story, a rich yet uncomplicated tale. Join Michael to hear about the remarkable life of Bernard Perlin and his long, richly varied, well-traveled career.
Against the Grain: The Remarkable Life of Artist Bernard Perlin celebrates and brings deserved visibility to an artist who lived passionately and unapologetically against the grain. It explores the benefits and challenges of multi-faceted identities, immigration, and assimilation. Additionally, it delves into historical experiences of persecution and discrimination against minority groups that reflect similar attitudes that are still prevalent today.
OPENING PREVIEW SCHEDULE
6:45 PM – Doors open
7:00 PM – Appetizer, dessert and wine reception
7:25 PM – Welcome by Daniel Schulman, JMM Executive Director
7:30 PM – ‘Unorthodox Boys’, talk by Michael Schreiber, Perlin Estate Curator
8:15 PM – Exhibit at a glance with Michael Schreiber and JMM Chief Curator Molly Dubin
UNORTHODOX BOYS FEATURING MICHAEL SCHREIBER
Bernard Perlin was on the brink of becoming a major art star. Already known for his popular propaganda posters and his work as a maverick artist-correspondent during
World War II, in 1948 he unveiled his postwar masterpiece: a painting titled Orthodox Boys. With its references to the Holocaust and to continuing postwar antisemitism on the American home front, Orthodox Boys established Perlin’s renown in the midcentury art world, and seemed a harbinger of his lasting fame.
But within just a few years, his work was languishing in the basement storage racks of the major museums who had rushed to collect it, and his name was relegated to the footnotes of American art and LGBTQ histories. What happened?
DATE:Â Thursday, September 26, 2024
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION:Â Jewish Museum Milwaukee
COST: Members $20 | Nonmembers $28
If you are unable to join us, we welcome donations to support our programming: jewishmuseummilwaukee.org/donate/
Joseph R. Pabst
Estate of Betty Ann Croen
Linda & Eli Frank
Greater Milwaukee Foundation-Mary A. Tingley Fund
Nina & Richard Edelman
Idy Goodman
Andy & Genina Berger
Leslie Hayes
Megan Holbrook, in tribute to Linda & Eli Frank
Margie & Jon Margolies
Cathy & Randy Nemerovski
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
Jen & Jason Rosenberg
We Energies
Anonymous
Michael Briselli & Jeannee Sacken
Chris Gould
The Mandel Group
Jason Steigman & Dori Frankel Steigman
Marley & Gary Stein
Adam Shapiro
Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce
Michael Schreiber is an author, teacher, and curator for the Estate of Bernard Perlin. His first book, One-Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin, was named a 2017 Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, among other accolades, and is being adapted into an upcoming documentary film.
Michael’s second book, written in collaboration with his husband, Jason Loper, is the award-winning This American House: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meier House and the American System-Built Homes. His writing also appears in the recent collections Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology from Middle America and The Young and Evil: Queer Modernism in New York, 1930-1955, among many other publications. His forthcoming book, Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life, will be published by Citadel Press in 2025.
Michael received the 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, and was a 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the North Dakota Museum of Art. He also continues his work of the past 25 years as a special education teacher and life coach, supporting children and young adults with autism and other developmental challenges through their continuing cognitive, social, and emotional growth.