James Tellen, WI

c. 1880–1957
CURENTLY NOT ON DISPLAY AT THE ARTS CENTER

James Tellen, Woodland Sculpture Garden (site views, left to right, Saint Peter’s Basilica tableau, skunk and goat tableau, bears in tree). Town of Wilson, WI.

Beginning in 1942 and continuing until his death in 1957, James Tellen (1880–1957) created over 30 historic, religious, and mythic figures within the woods surrounding his family's summer cottage in the Black River area of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Tellen was first inspired to make a sculptural environment after a stay in a local hospital, where he became inspired by its marble statues and intriguing naturalistic grottos.

Tellen merged his love of nature and his deep-seated spirituality in a series of large-scale concrete sculptures, creating an assembly of both life-size and miniature characters. His renditions of braves and frontiersmen, religious and patriotic icons, and an assortment of poignant, devout, and sometimes humorous tableaux are arranged in lifelike tableaux, integrated into the woodland surroundings in a highly naturalistic manner

Kohler Foundation acquired and preserved the Woodland Sculpture Garden 1988, which today is part of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection.

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