James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden, Black River, WI
The Site
James Tellen merged his love of nature and his deep-seated spirituality in a series of seventy-five concrete sculptures he created on his family’s property in Black River, Wisconsin. He created an assembly of both life-size and miniature characters that included depictions of Native Americans and frontiersmen, religious and patriotic icons, and an assortment of poignant, devout, and sometimes humorous tableaux. The works are arranged in lifelike scenes integrated along a path in the woodland surroundings.
Today, Tellen’s environment is stewarded by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. It hosts many visitors, and the family’s former cabin is open a few times of year for special events. A number of his smaller, more fragile works are stored at the Art Preserve. Visitors can see the site as part of the Wandering Wisconsin consortium, a group of nine art-environment sites situated across the state.
James Tellen
1880–1957
Beginning in 1942 and continuing until his death in 1957, James Tellen (1880-1957) created over thirty historical, religious, and mythical figures out of concrete in the woods surrounding his family’s summer cottage in Black River, Wisconsin. Tellen was first inspired to make a sculptural environment after a stay in a local hospital in 1942, where he viewed marble statues of saints and grottos from his window.
Kohler Foundation, Inc., acquired and preserved the Woodland Sculpture Garden in 1988. In 2001, the Tellen art environment became part of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection. It was the first off-site addition to the Art Center’s collection, a milestone in the institution’s mission and collecting strategy.
