Untitled (Red and White Bird)

Albert Zahn, Untitled (Red and White Bird), ca. 1924 - 1950, painted wood, 4 × 1 ¹⁄₄ × 8 in. (10.2 × 3.2 × 20.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orren and Marilyn Bradley and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2015.58.33

Artwork Details

Title: Untitled (Red and White Bird)
Artist: Albert Zahn
Date: ca. 1924 - 1950
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
1st Floor
/
West Wing
Dimensions: 4 × 1 ¹⁄₄ × 8 in. (10.2 × 3.2 × 20.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Orren and Marilyn Bradley and Kohler Foundation, Inc.
Mediums Description: painted wood
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Animal — bird
Object Number: 2015.58.33
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.58.33

Artwork Description

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.