The New Mona Lisa: Eugene Von Bruenchenhein's "Marie" at Walker Arts Center
Eugene von Bruenchenhein (1910 - 1983) lived and worked as a baker and a florist in Milwaukee. By night, he constructed elaborate dreamscapes and fantasy worlds in multiple media. He painted, sculpted, wrote poetry, and took a remarkable series of photographs of his wife, Evelyn T. "Marie" Kalke. A room of these photos is currently on exhibit at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, as part of the "Midnight Party" exhibit, curated by Joan Rothfuss and focusing on "dreams, fantasies, visions, and meditations." Von Bruenchenhein met Marie at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1939. Their all-American beginnings led to an all-American pastime: they took dirty pictures together. Except, as the Walker's exhibition captures, they really aren't dirty pictures. "A fictive pleasure world" is the language the Walker's description uses. And the Kinz & Tillou website describes the images as "passionate and provocative, yet playful