1 of 1977Mary Nohl inside her Lake Cottage (Fox Point, WI), 1997.
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Above: Video by Kohler Foundation Inc., produced by Grassland Media, Inc., 2001.
Mary Nohl refused to be confined by artistic categorization. She was a painter, sculptor, ceramicist, printmaker, potter, woodcarver, writer, illustrator, and jeweler who described herself as simply "a woman who likes tools." Nohl was also an environment builder, altering her home such that her creations filled every room and a large part of the yard. Deeply inspired by the Lake Michigan shoreline in Fox Point, Wisconsin, Nohl was omnivorous in her selection of materials and methods of making. Whether it was melting down her mother's sterling silver to make jewelry or walking along the shores of the lake looking for flotsam to build her driftwood figures, Nohl made her own rules, and her commitment to her art was incontestable.
When Nohl died in 2001, her home and entire art environment went into the stewardship of Kohler Foundation, Inc. In 2005, the Mary Nohl home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was named a Milwaukee County Landmark in 2006. In 2012, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center received the Mary Nohl property and the individual works of art from Kohler Foundation, Inc. There are now over thirty-five hundred Nohl works of various media in the Arts Center collection in addition to an abundance of archival material. The Arts Center has exhibited Nohl's work in exhibitions ranging from Nick Engelbert and Mary Nohl: Objects and Environments (1997) to Mary Nohl: Silver and Stone (2001) to Greetings, Hello and Boo! Mary Nohl + Catherine Morris (2017).
