Wisconsin Artists & the Magic Realists

In the late 1930s a circle of friends formed around the art department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and, together with two allies in Chicago, quietly made some of the strangest and most personal American painting of the century. They are known today as the Wisconsin magic realists, and after decades of being collected mostly at home, museums and national collectors are rediscovering them.

Revere Auctions is an auction house of the Upper Midwest: this is our region and these are our artists. If you own a work by John Wilde, Karl Priebe, Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier, Dudley Huppler, Gertrude Abercrombie, or Julia Thecla, send photographs through our free auction estimate form and our fine art specialists will respond with an honest valuation.

Who Were the Wisconsin Magic Realists?

They were never a formal movement. They were friends — John Wilde, Karl Priebe, Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier, and Dudley Huppler, most of them connected through Madison — who wrote to each other constantly, argued about art in Priebe’s Milwaukee studio, and gathered in Chicago at the salons of Gertrude Abercrombie, where painters mixed with jazz musicians until late in the night. Julia Thecla, the most private of the Chicago circle, belonged to the same world.

What united them was a way of seeing. While New York moved toward abstraction, these painters kept drawing and painting the visible world — but tilted, dreamlike, charged with private meaning. A self-portrait with an impossible companion, a cat on a moonlit street, a bird held by a friend: ordinary things made strange. Critics called it magic realism, and it is aging better than most of what overshadowed it.

• Gertrude Abercrombie
• Sylvia Fein
• Marshall Glasier
• Dudley Huppler
• Karl Priebe
• Julia Thecla
• John Wilde

Why Are Collectors Rediscovering Them Now?

For decades this circle was a regional secret, collected in Wisconsin and Chicago and little known beyond. That has changed. Museum exhibitions have put the group back in front of a national audience, led by a major reappraisal of Gertrude Abercrombie and her circle, and works that once passed quietly through Midwestern estates now draw bidders from across the country.

A growing market rewards sellers who reach it properly. When interest in an artist is rising, the difference between a work sold quietly and one placed at auction — catalogued, researched, and put in front of every collector who is looking — can be the difference between an old price and a new record. Auction is how a growing market finds out what a work is really worth.

How Much Is a Wisconsin Magic Realist Work Worth?

It depends on the artist, the medium, and the picture. Every artist in the circle worked across mediums — oils, casein, egg tempera, silverpoint, ink — and their markets value each differently. The factors that recur:

• The artist — each member of the circle has a distinct market, moving at its own pace
• Medium — a finished painting, a drawing, and a print sit at very different levels
• Subject — the signature imagery collectors associate with each artist leads their market
• Condition — especially for works on paper, which most of the circle favored
• Provenance — many works passed directly from the artists to Wisconsin and Chicago friends, and that story adds value

None of that requires you to do research. Photograph the front, the back, and the signature, and send them through the free estimate form — identification is our job, not yours.

How to Sell a Wisconsin Magic Realist Work

The strongest results for a Wisconsin magic realist work come at auction, where national and international collectors bid against each other. Revere Auctions offers free, no-obligation auction estimates: send photos and dimensions and our specialists respond with a current market valuation and a recommendation on how to sell. Consigned works are professionally photographed, cataloged, and marketed through our fine art auctions to a worldwide bidder base, and we regularly arrange shipping for consignors across the country. If you need a formal written valuation for insurance or estate purposes, our appraisal and valuation services team can help; you can also read more about how selling at auction works.

Related: our fine art department, appraisal services, Minnesota artists, American & Western paintings.

Reviewed by the fine art specialists at Revere Auctions, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Selling Wisconsin Artists: Frequently Asked Questions

Who were the Wisconsin magic realists?

A circle of friends formed around the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the late 1930s: John Wilde, Karl Priebe, Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier, and Dudley Huppler, closely tied to Gertrude Abercrombie and Julia Thecla in Chicago. They painted the visible world made strange, and museums are actively rediscovering them.

How do I find out what my Wisconsin magic realist work is worth?

Send photographs of the front, back, and signature to Revere Auctions through the free auction estimate form. Our fine art specialists identify the artist, medium, and market and respond with an honest valuation at no charge and no obligation.

Why sell a work by a rediscovered artist at auction?

When interest in an artist is rising, no private buyer will pay tomorrow’s price today. Auction puts a work in front of every collector and museum that is looking at once, and competitive bidding is how a growing market sets its new level.

Do you handle artists connected to this circle but not listed here?

Yes. Our fine art department values and sells Wisconsin, Chicago, and Upper Midwest art of every kind, including artists who studied with or exhibited alongside this circle. When in doubt, send photographs and ask.

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