''Fishing'' is a
public art
Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...
work by
Karl Kahlich located in Monument Park at the Parklawn development of the
Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee
The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) is a municipal agency of Milwaukee, Wisconsin dedicated to providing public housing and services for residents of the city of Milwaukee. The agency was established in 1944 and is responsible to ...
, northwest of downtown
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. ''Fishing'' is carved from local limestone and depicts a figure in a cap holding a large fish.
The sculpture was installed in 1938 as one of four public artworks based on the theme of leisure activity.
Description
''Fishing'' is carved from a large block of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
quarried at nearby Currie Park.
The figure's head wears a cap and his hand holds a fish. Grasping the fish with one hand, the figure uses the other hand to remove a hook from the fish's mouth.
Information
The artwork was commissioned during the federal
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
's campaign to put Americans to work by improving local infrastructure under
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's
New Deal. When Milwaukee constructed Parklawn using WPA labor, Karl Kahlich was commissioned to create decorative sculptures for the development's massive park. Kahlich was a participant in the
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
of the WPA.
Condition
In 1998, Parklawn underwent a $34 million revitalization and the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee decided to restore the sculptures and give them a prominent location in a new common green space called Monument Park. Walkways connect Kahlich's ''Fishing'' and ''
Music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
'' with a central gazebo, informational plaques, time capsules, a stone war memorial, and other artwork.
See also
*
List of New Deal sculpture
References
{{MilwaukeePublicArt
1938 sculptures
Works Progress Administration in Wisconsin