Artist Marc Chagall’s 96 imaginatively exaggerated illustrations bring the tragic and humorous characters populating the provincial country town in writer Nikolai Gogol’s renowned satire, ‘Dead Souls’, to vivid life. Commenting on the political and social divides in 19th-century Imperialist Russia, the inspired pairing produced a thinly cloaked critique with contemporary parallels.
Throughout “Dead Souls,” Gogol and Chagall are equally uninterested in strict realism, but their portraits of nobles who speak French more than Russian, daydream rather than become adequate estate managers, and are so blinded by rank and status they cannot detect a con artist, make the combined works an instant classic.
Rarely seen together, all 96 black-and-white etchings are on view, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Collection and Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery.
Join us to celebrate the satirical world created by Gogol and Chagall with a tour from Chief Curator, Molly Dubin. Get a sneak preview of Christine Wenc’s anticipated book “Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire.” And enjoy light appetizers, dessert and wine.
“Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire”
In a sneak preview of her highly anticipated book, “Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire” (Running Press 2025) writer, editor and historian Christine Wenc will discuss the origins of The Onion in Madison, Wisconsin in 1988 and how it went on to national and international fame and influence over the next 30 years, and the difference between news satire and “fake news.”
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 2024
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Jewish Museum Milwaukee
COST: Members $15 | Nonmembers $20
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 | Author Christine Wenc talks about her anticipated book, “Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire” (Running Press, 2025)
8:15 PM | Exhibit tours with JMM Chief Curator Molly Dubin
Christine Wenc is the author of “How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire” (Running Press, 2025). She was a member of the Onion’s original staff as a UW-Madison undergrad from 1988-1990, spent three years in the newsroom at Wisconsin Public Radio, and then became the editor-in-chief of Seattle’s alternative weekly, The Stranger. She subsequently did graduate work in history at Harvard and worked as curator and content expert for award-winning public history projects. She recently received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for her next book, a history of how life support technology changed American death. She holds a day job as research grant editor at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison and is a member of the literary arts team at Madison’s Arts+Literature Laboratory.
Images are courtesy of the UW-Milwaukee Art Collection and Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery
Sobakevich Eating His Dinner, from “Dead Souls”, 1923-1927, UWM Art Collection
The Painters in Nozdrev’s Dining Room, from “Dead Souls”, 1923-1927, UWM Art Collection
Image from Ticketing Page: Gogol and Chagall, from “Dead Souls”, 1923-1927, UWM Art Collection
The Estate of Betty Croen
Suzy Ettinger Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Linda & Eli Frank
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation-Mary A. Tingley Fund
Herb Kohl Philanthropies
Susan Lubar
and all of the donors who made this exhibit possible
