Nohl’s yard gave rise to sensational stories about her and, like many creative and independent women throughout history, her uniqueness was used to hold her at arms length. She was often harassed and called a witch by local youths, some of whom made dares out of vandalizing her property and even set fire to several wooden sculptures. Witty and sociable by nature, Nohl remained largely undaunted by such brutal responses. Her close friendships were lasting, but few, and her stone-inlaid concrete figures embody a poignant duality of companionship and loneliness.

A growing interest in art environments in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in Nohl’s inclusion in still another loose classification of artists, often referred to as Outsiders. Although the term does not hold up to rigid examination, it was intended to refer to artists who eluded mainstream classifications and cultural influences. Nohl had, indeed, transformed her house and yard into a complex, multi-faceted work of art that defied established modes. She had sacrificed the high polish and clear intentions characteristic of successful modernists to exploration and whimsy. Nevertheless, her work did not fit into the Outsider concept of being “untainted” by art and culture. Nohl would reach the end of her life having always found herself between worlds.

The recognition that she once sought, then spurned, came near the end of her life. Between 1998 and 2001, she was included in two group exhibitions at the Kohler Arts Center and a solo exhibition at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. The last exhibition Nohl lived to attend was “Mary Nohl: Silver and Stone,” the 2001 Kohler Arts Center debut of several hundred pieces of her sculptural jewelry, an exhibition that brought her both critical and popular acclaim. Nohl’s inclusion in several additional shows since her death in 2001, particularly “Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds,” has continued to elevate her profile as an important American artist. In 2008, she was given a posthumous


A Singular Space
Before her death in 2001, Mary Nohl donated a significant body of her work to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin (www.jmkac.org). She also entrusted the preservation of her home, yard and the art that is integral to the site to the Kohler Foundation (www.kohlerfoundation.org). The Foundation is working to preserve the site, which is listed as one of the ten most endangered properties in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Preservation Trust. Nohl’s Lake Cottage Environment has also been placed on the Wisconsin Registry of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places and has been nominated as a Milwaukee County Landmark. The site remains private and is not open to the public at this time. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132