"Backed by a distinguished history beginning in 1888, the Milwaukee Art Museum recently inaugurated a spectacular new addition, the $100 million Quadracci Pavilion designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. The new building complements and extends the museum's solid foundations - expressed in the original imposing Eero Saarinen War Memorial Center building of 1957 and the David Kahler-designed 1975 addition.

In his essay discussing Calatrava's past and present work, internationally recognized architectural historian Franz Schulze examines Milwaukee's launch of this ambitious project and the architect's stunning accomplishment.".

"Building a Masterpiece has been published to showcase the collections. The museum curators, assisted by outside scholars, have carefully explicated 166 works of art that meaningfully demonstrate what the museum has accomplished over the many years of its commitment and role within Milwaukee and the larger art community. Works of art from antiquity to the present are each represented by a full-color reproduction and a carefully researched, lively text.

The wealth of Renaissance decorative arts, the European and American art collections, works on paper, photography, and folk and outsider objects, present a broad spectrum of the history of art. Special attention is given to American decorative arts and the twentieth-century and contemporary collections because of their exceptional strength. Director Russell Bowman's introduction to Building a Masterpiece gives an overview of the institution's history and the character of its collections."--BOOK JACKET.