Russell Bowman Art Advisory

Founded in 2002, Russell Bowman Art Advisory provides complete collection development and management for private collectors, corporations and institutions. Specializing in Modern, contemporary and self-taught art, services include collection planning and acquisition; private sales; and coordination of appraisals, conservation, framing and installat... ion. Also functioning as a gallery from 2003 to 2015, one-person shows included David Smith, Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, Lucas Samaras, Elizabeth Murray, Joel Shapiro, Joel Sternfeld, Kiki Smith, Candida Hofer and others. Exhibitions also focused on works on paper and artists associated with Chicago Imagism, especially Jim Nutt, Roger Brown and Ed Paschke. With 25 years of museum administration and curatorial experience, Russell Bowman was the Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum from 1985 to 2002. A highlight of his tenure was the completion of the widely acclaimed addition to the museum designed by Santiago Calatrava. The 140,000 square-foot expansion was named "The Best Design of 2001" by Time magazine. The expansion was realized through the completion of a $100 million capital campaign and resulted in a first year attendance of some 450,000 visitors. In conjunction with the expansion, Bowman also directed the renovation of the museum's two existing buildings and the complete reinstallation of its collections. Several important collections acquired during Bowman's tenure were the Hall Collection of American Folk Art in 1989, the gift of the Flagg Collection of Renaissance and Haitian Art in 1991, the Landfall Press Archive in 1992, the gift/purchase of a major body of Georgia O'Keeffe works in 1997-1998, and the gift of the Specks Collection of German Expressionist Prints in 2000. Bowman's exhibitions for the Milwaukee Art Museum included New Figuration in America (1982); Philip Pearlstein: A Retrospective (1983); Warhol/Beuys/Polke (1987); Word as Image: American Art, 1960-1990 (1990); and Jim Nutt (1994), all of which traveled nationally, and O'Keeffe's ...Read More