Untitled (Red and White Bird)

Object Details

Artist

Albert Zahn, born Natelfitz, Germany 1864-died Baileys Harbor, WI 1953

Gallery Label

Albert Zahn was known as “the Birdman of Door County.” After retiring from his dairy farm on the Wisconsin peninsula, he built a small retirement house and embellished it with hundreds of carved and painted cedar birds, angels, and figures dressed in the attire of his Pomeranian homeland. Zahn was regarded as a devout Lutheran, yet he believed the natural world was the most spiritual of places and spent his days in the cedar woods, watching birds and carving. Manifestations of the winged form and the metaphor of flight were prominent at the site he called Bird’s Park, which was pervaded by the theme of spiritual elevation.

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orren and Marilyn Bradley and Kohler Foundation, Inc.

ca. 1924 - 1950

Object number

2015.58.33

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Sculpture

Folk Art

Medium

painted wood

Dimensions

4 × 1 1/4 × 8 in. (10.2 × 3.2 × 20.3 cm)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Painting and Sculpture

On View

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1st Floor, West Wing

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Animal\bird

Record ID

saam_2015.58.33

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk734722c19-2434-4b82-a8c9-c0697d06e031