Peter Jodocy
Peter Jodocy (1884–1971), a German-born Belgian, traveled the world looking for the ideal place to call home and eventually chose the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Jodocy and his wife homesteaded a farm in an area that today remains largely wilderness. He expressed his often-humorous reflections on American culture in his small but expertly crafted yard environment.
Jodocy made his sculptures by sheathing a wood frame in a plaster mixture, then painting and adorning them with local artifacts. In this exhibition, a traditionally clad hunter—wearing a 1957 Michigan license plate on his back in lieu of a hunting tag—took aim at a deer crowned with a real antler rack. The Arts Center staff continues the search for the scene’s third character, a game warden. After Jodocy’s death, his sculptures remained in place on the property for a time. Eventually, they were auctioned off and acquired by the Dean Jensen Gallery in Milwaukee.
The Artists
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
