President Lincoln Bust
1973
Dick Wiken
I assume my husband and I found this at some antique store- probably in Door County, WI. It has been sitting on my bookcase, and I've always assumed it is a lonely bookend. The name on the bottom says "Original Edition, Genesis Productions Inc, Milwaukee Wis, USA." On the back is engraved the name "Wiken" and the year 1973.
Dick Wiken was a sculptor from Shorewood, Wisconsin, which is near Milwaukee. He was in the service during World War II, and once back, was asked to design a carving to go in a Mexican hotel owned by a Chicagoan. He did many sculptures, but I couldn't find any photos of them online.
Mr. Wiken died in 1975, and though I can find references to him, I can't find any details about a Lincoln carving that he might have done. There are some random articles about him in the Milwaukee Journal. He did an ad for Schlitz beer in 1949 that came up in a lot of searches.
He was President of the Lief Ericcson Society and held a belief that America was named for the Norse word "omme-rike," which meant "remote land."
I could not find any information about the Genesis Productions, Inc.; all of the searches took me to Milwaukee theatre productions.
A handful of books have been published about Mr. Wiken, so it seems like I will be needing those to do more research on him and why he made this Lincoln carving.
In the meantime, none of the searches I did (Google search based on the words and a photo of the bust, ebay) had anything like this photo. I don't know what to even call it- bust, carving, bookend?
The mystery of this piece continues....
7 comments:
Hello, my name is Cathy Wiken and this piece was done by my 2nd Uncle, Dick Wiken out of Milwaukee. I'll give you a link which might help you find some of his other work. His Daughter, Melody Wiken (Mel) is an artist down in the French Quarter.
http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/artist/dick-wiken/profile-3524.aspx
Hello, I'm Cathy Wiken. Dick Wiken is my 2nd Uncle. He's the brother of my Grandfather. This link might help you as he's done many sculptors.
http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/artist/dick-wiken/profile-3524.aspx
I have recently found a very similar bust of henry aaron from 1974 with the same manufacture name. This is almost identical in style to what you have. The only info I could find was an article about the company restructuring in 1974. It sounded like they weren't doing so well. Maybe these are pretty rare?
Thank you, Cathy! I appreciate your sharing the link! Do you have pieces that your uncle created?
Sheila
Get the book: Dick Wiken, Milwaukee Architectural Sculptor by Anna Passante. All your questions will be answered.
Get the book: Dick Wiken, Milwaukee Architectural Sculptor by Anna Passante. All your questions will be answered.
Hi. I came across this blog as I was researching my Genesis bust of BB King; very similar in style to the Lincoln piece. No mention of Mr. Wiken on it though.
Brad, Wauwatosa, WI
Post a Comment