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USA
Midwest
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Bailey's Harbor, WI
Birds Park - Albert Zahn
1864-1953
Carvings and Environment
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Information:
After retiring at age sixty from a life of farming, Albert Zahn and his wife, Louise, began constructing and embellishing this unique property. Zahn hand-mixed the concrete and poured it into molds to form the eight-inch thick walls of the house. The resulting monolithic concrete walls still show the impressions of the formwork on the exterior walls. Also scattered on the property are concrete display stands and piers that displayed Zahn's artwork.
Zahn had a lifelong interest in woodcarving and was an experienced carpenter. A noted folk artist, Zahn displayed many of his bird carvings around the grounds and named the property Bird's Park, which he inscribed on a sign and placed over the entrance to the house. Other subjects included fish, deer, totem poles, and biblical characters. Albert would carve the figures and Louise would paint them in bright colors. Initially, Zahn gave away the carvings to friends or sold them to visitors for a small amount. As national interest in folk art grew, his carvings were collected and displayed in museums, including the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The house is private property. Please respect the privacy of the owners.
fthe following is from John Michael Kohler Foundation: (http://www.jmkac.org/AlbertZahn)
Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula is a bird’s paradise, as it was for Albert Zahn (1864-1953), an artist so taken with these heavenly creatures that he transformed his home and yard into "Birds Park," an art environment defined by hundreds of carved and painted bird forms. After passing down his farm to a son, Albert built his small retirement home from cast concrete in Baileys Harbor. Between 1924-1950, Zahn became a prolific carver. He covered the house and property with hand-carved cedarwood birds, angels, woodsmen, sailors, ships, and woodland creatures.
The art that once covered Birds Park dissipated as tourists purchased items from the façade and yard during the last years of the artist’s life. Following Zahn’s death, the property fell into a decline. Although much of the art that once covered Birds Park was removed from the house over the years, current owners Robert McCullough and Karen Tosi have spent years lovingly restoring Zahn’s handmade house and collecting the works of art that once adorned it. McCullough and Tosi have generously promised Birds Park and the largest private collection of Zahn’s carvings to the Arts Center. Today, the Arts Center is the largest public repository of Zahn’s work.
Wisconsin Historical Society
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Bibliography:
Albert Zahn: I'LL FLY AWAY
December 13, 2003 - February 28, 2004
Intuit
"Albert Zahn: I’ll Fly Away" by Leslie Umberger, 2003
"Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists" by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, New York, 1990.
"American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies" by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.
Slotin Folk Art Auction Catalog, Masterpiece Sale, November 4, 2006
"Sublime Spaces & Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists," by Leslie Umberger, Erika Doss, Ruth DeYoung Kohler, Lisa Stone, and Jane Bianco, published by John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
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