Biography
Max Fernekes was the son of a renowned architect and builder and studied at the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1928 to 1929. During the Depression he worked on the Index of American Design for the Federal Arts Project and in 1932 was an organizer, and exhibitor, in Milwaukee's first art fair.
He moved to Mineral Point, Wisconsin in 1940, living in a 100-year old farmhouse that also served as an art studio for Fernekes and his wife. They were the first artists to settle in Mineral Point.
Fernekes is remembered for his early etchings and later for watercolors and crayon depictions of buildings and other scenes of Milwaukee, Mineral Point, and Door County. He is also noted for his Mexican landscapes. In 1946, he did the illustrations for books written by Fred L. Holmes. He was honored by the Milwaukee Art Commission in 1981 for helping to enrich the city's cultural life through his art. He maintained a winter home in Lampasas, Texas, and died there from a heart attack in 1984.
Group Exhibitions
1945 F. W. Bresler Galleries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two-person exhibition with Anthony Wuchterl
1985 University Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Celebration 100: A Century of Alumni Art
1992 West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts, Wisconsin (now known as West Bend Art Museum), Early Wisconsin Ambiance: Environments & Landscapes by Wisconsin's Early Artists 1880-1940.
© 10/17/2007 Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, Wisconsin 4/6/2010