Wright Auction

In 1910, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was born in Marinette in northern Wisconsin along Lake Michigan. He was the second of three sons and his mother died when he was only seven. His father soon remarried a schoolteacher who first introduced Von Bruenchenhein to creative pursuits. After high school, he developed an interest in horticulture and grew exotic plants at his father's home. Leaf and floral motifs would later become common in Von Bruenchenhein's art. When he was just nineteen, Von Bruenchenhein met his eventual wife and artistic muse, Evelyn Kalka, whom he called "Marie" after a favorite aunt of his. The couple married in 1943 and made their home in Milwaukee, where Von Bruenchenhein worked at a bakery by day to make ends meet. They lived in a storefront that soon became the center of Von Bruenchenhein's artistic world. Here they created fantastic stage sets, adorned the space with pastels and various architectural elements, and installed concrete masks among lilac bushes outside to deter visitors.

Over the course of a nearly fifty-year career, Von Bruenchenhein took hundreds of photographs of Marie in a pinup style, in which she tried on various classic female roles with floral backgrounds in their home studio. From movie stars to royalty, Marie would pose seductively, sometimes partially nude, wearing lavish fabrics or dresses, pearls, and, in some cases, ornate handmade ceramic or metal crowns, which Von Bruenchenhein fashioned himself. To heighten the dreamlike impression of these compositions, he employed double exposures at times and set Marie's image in lush landscapes. Not only did Marie contribute to Von Bruenchenhein's work as an active subject, but she also applied hand coloring to some of the photographs.

In addition to photography, Von Bruenchenhein produced paintings and sculptures, wrote poetry, and developed scientific formulations. Although his funds for materials were limited, Von Bruenchenhein was resourceful, sitting at his kitchen table and working on masonite or leftover cardboard panels from his bakery job. During the 1950s, Von Bruenchenhein began to paint with oils using his fingers and simple items like sticks, combs, or crumpled paper. Along with surreal flora and fauna, fierce beasts, and elaborate structures, Von Bruenchenhein created paintings depicting nuclear power and explosions, clearly influenced by the Cold War.

As a writer, Von Bruenchenhein was also prone to bringing seemingly disparate ideas together. His poetry and scientific essays combine artistic concepts, botany, evolution, astronomy, and early New Age theories. Over time, Von Bruenchenhein's writing likewise became part of the decor at his home studio, with tracts hung up among the stage sets, murals, and plants. In 1959, Von Bruenchenhein retired from the bakery to focus entirely on his art. While he continued painting, sculpture occupied him mostly in the late 1960s and 1970s. This period included an extensive series of painted bone sculptures, which tend to resemble design objects or buildings. Von Bruenchenhein's final paintings present expansive fantasy landscapes with towers under cloudy skies.

Although Von Bruenchenhein felt he deserved a wider audience in his lifetime (and even wrote Presidents Kennedy and Johnson requesting their official approval), he struggled to get local galleries in Milwaukee to represent him or exhibit his art. Not until the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin exhibited Von Bruenchenhein in 1984, the year after his death, did his work begin to draw attention. Subsequently, various galleries and museums included Von Bruenchenhein in outsider or self-taught art shows. In 2010, he finally received a solo exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City and interest in his work has steadily grown over the last decade plus. At the 2022 Outsider Art Fair in Paris, Von Bruenchenhein was featured prominently thanks to the efforts of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and curator Marta Papini.