Dick Wiken

WE SEEK EARLY SCULPTURES BY DICK WIKEN. Contact us at: info@GalleryofWisconsinArt.com

BORN: 1913, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
DIED: 1985, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Dick Wiken was born with the ability to draw and sculpt and had no formal art training beyond his 12 years of public school. By the time he was in high school, he was highly regarded for his sculpting talent and work. Wiken attended Bay View High School and his art teacher was artist Edward A. Boerner. Wiken graduated in 1931, and credited Boerner, for his training as an artist. However, Wiken went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for two years, studying journalism, english and history.

As a self-taught sculptor, designer, and craftsman, his dream was to work for architects creating architectural sculpture. As a lifelong resident of the Milwaukee area, Wiken's many works in wood, stone, and metal decorate numerous buildings and homes in the Milwaukee area and beyond. 

Beginning his artistic career in the early days of the Great Depression in 1931, Wiken was employed during the mid to late 1930s as a member of the Wisconsin Works Progress Administration (WPA) Art Project - a federally funded program which created employment for artists who needed work. Wiken also worked for the Milwaukee Handicraft Project - program of the Wisconsin WPA - and supervised workers in the woodworking toys unit. The Handicraft Project employed unskilled workers as well as trained artists and designers to produce a multitude of items- books, toys, costumes, quilts, wall hangings, draperies, weavings and rugs for use in schools, nurseries, and institutions throughout the state and the country. 

In addition to his work with the WPA, Wiken was an Instructor of Sculpture at the Art Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1934-1937, and, from 1938-1943, at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. 

Prior to 1945, Wiken participated extensively in general art activities, including many juried exhibitions. Around 1945, Wiken withdrew from almost all exhibitions and devoted his time to professional commissions, while occasionally exhibiting in non- competitive art shows. During World War II, he served  on active duty in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1943 to 1946. 

Wiken produced works for many banks, high schools, churches, libraries, and breweries throughout the Milwaukee area, along with completing many private commissions for sculpted portraits throughout the country including carved wooden panels depicting the rape of Mexico for a hotel in Mexico, historical sculptures for a hotel in Chicago,  carved doors for the Administration Building at Solider Field in Chicago, and a fountain at the Milwaukee Journal Central Plaza.

A book about Dick Wiken's life titled, "Milwaukee Architectural Sculptor" by Anna Passante is available.  It sheds light on a Bay View prodigy whose name is regrettably pretty much unknown in the community. He was a gifted, self-taught sculptor, who deserves to be honored and long remembered in his native Milwaukee and beyond.

Main Photo Credit above: 1976, Property Ric Hartman, Gallery of Wisconsin Art, photographer unknown.

Photo below unknown.