Eugene Von Bruenchenhein

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910–1983) was an American outsider artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

His versatile body of work included over a thousand colorful apocalyptic landscape paintings; hundreds of sculptures made from chicken bones, ceramic and cast cement; pin-up style photos of his wife, Marie; plus dozens of notebooks filled with poetic and scientific musings. Von Bruenchenhein's work is represented in various museum collections, including: American Folk Art Museum, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, (Sheboygan, WI); Milwaukee Art Museum; New Orleans Museum of Art; Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago; Newark Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Early life

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was born July 31, 1910 in Marinette Wisconsin. He was the second of three sons by Edwin and Clara Von Bruenchenhein. Within a few years, the family moved to Green Bay and eventually settled in Milwaukee where Eugene's father worked as a sign painter. In the 1930s, Edwin built a small home on Milwaukee's west side at 514 S. 94th Pl (eventually razed in September 1983) from which he ran a grocery store. It was within easy walking distance of the state fairgrounds.^[1][2]

Von Bruenchenhein's mother, Clara, died in 1917 when Eugene was seven years old. His father then married Elizabeth "Bessie" Mosely, a schoolteacher who had returned to the U.S. from Panama to become a chiropractor. In 1926 she had authored a pamphlet entitled, "Evolution: The Law of Progress Based on Truth", along with several other treatises on evolution and reincarnation. She painted floral still lifes and the young Eugene regarded her as a mentor until her death in 1938.^[2]

In the late 1930s, Bruenchenhein built a greenhouse behind his father's home to house his growing collection of exotic plants and cacti. He became a member of the Milwaukee Cactus Club, worked at a local florist shop and studied books on botany. When asked, he told people he was a horticulturist.^[2]

Bruenchenhein was a man of small stature, so much so that he was prevented from serving in the Army during WWII because he did not meet the minimum height requirement.^[3]

In 1939 he met Eveline T. "Marie" Kalke at the Wisconsin State Fair. She was 19, he was 29. They married in 1943 and a year later Eugene took a job at Carpenter Baking Co. in Milwaukee. He worked there until 1959 when health problems and the closing of the bakery led to his premature "retirement" at the age of 49.^[2] In the last year of his life, Bruenchenhein and his wife were living entirely off his $220 monthly Social Security checks.^[4]

Bruenchenhein owned a Nash Rambler but once admitted to a friend that he only filled the gas tank twice a year.^[4]

Photographer

Von Bruenchenhein is best known for his photographs, including hundreds of portraits of his wife Marie in exotic costumes and settings. He frequently made use of the double exposure to give his photographs an added touch of surrealism; the frequently cited example is the portrait where Marie holds her own head in her hand. The photographs evoke pinup girls of the 1950s, such as this one, from the permanent collection of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago. Marie served as his muse, becoming the subject, directly or indirectly, of all of his art and writing. A homemade plaque in his kitchen gave him the epithets of "Eugene Von Bruenchenhein—Freelance Artist, Poet and Sculptor, Inovator [sic], Arrow maker and Plant man, Bone artifacts constructor, Photographer and Architect, Philosopher."

Painter

Von Bruenchenhein developed his own unique style of finger painting also incorporating the use of small sticks and home made brushes which he made with his wife Marie's hair. His paintings were made by "pushing" paint around on the smooth surface of primed masonite to create three dimensional effects often depicting swirling masses in a rhythmic, calligraphic style. The paintings often appear to depict other worlds resembling landscapes in outer space, distant planets, sea fauna or other unusual life forms. One of his paintings was used as the cover art for the CD Transmalinnia by the Los Angeles indie music group Lumerians.^[5]

Sculptor

Poet

Death and legacy

Von Bruenchenhein died on January 24, 1983 at the age of 72 from congestive heart failure. Shortly afterwards, Daniel Nycz, a West Allis policeman who had befriended Von Bruenchenhein years earlier, contacted Russell Bowman, then chief curator of the Milwaukee Art Museum, in the hope that some of Von Bruenchenhein's artistic creations could be sold off in order to provide for Eugene's impoverished widow, Marie. Bowman in turn called Ruth Kohler, director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and officer of the Kohler Foundation which was known for preserving the work of outsider artists. In September 1983, all of Bruenchenhein's works contained within his home were transported to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Subsequently, an extensive effort to document, catalog and preserve Von Bruenchenhein's work was mounted under the direction of Joanne Cubbs.^[1]

References

Bibliography

• Cubbs, Joanne (1988). Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: Obsessive Visionary. John Michael Kohler Arts Center.  ISBN 0-932718-25-6
• Umberger, Leslie (2007). Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists. Princeton Architectural Press.  ISBN 978-1568987286

External links

• Official Eugene Von Bruenchenhein webpage
• Biography from a gallery site
• Information from museum web site