On Watch
On Watch is a public artwork by American artist David M. Wanner located at the Fire and Police Safety Academy, which is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The life-size bronze sculpture depicts a police officer and a fire fighter both holding a rescued child.
Description
On Watch is a life-size bronze sculpture consisting of three figures. A Caucasian policeman and an African-American firefighter stand back-to-back holding a child wrapped in a blanket. The inscription on the southwest corner of the sculpture reads: WANNER 90. The inscription on the northwest corner reads: WACO FDR. There is a bronze plaque on the concrete base which reads: On Watch/ Dedicated to the guardians of public safety in the city of Milwaukee John Norquist, mayor Milwaukee Art Commission, David M. Wanner Sculptor 1990.[1] The work is administered by the City of Milwaukee.
Historical information
In 1972-73 the city of Milwaukee converted Madonna High School into a modern training academy for the city's policemen and firemen. The new building qualified for Milwaukee's Percent for Art program, therefore two competitions were held by the Milwaukee Arts Commission to choose a sculpture for the site. After the first competition's results were announced, the artists involved complained of changes in guidelines and favoritism. A second competition was thus held. David M. Wanner won the second competition and the $33,000 commission.[2]
The three bronze figures were cast in thirteen pieces and then welded together. They were set on concrete foundations, which go 4 1/2 ft. underground. "Wanner wanted to subtly represent the fire fighter as a black minority- either a man or woman; however, the bronze casting by a local industrial foundry blurred the desired nuance."[2]
Artist
David M. Wanner was a Catholic priest as a young man and participated in the civil rights movement. He received a PhD in Fine Arts and Sculpture in 1976 from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, and an MA in Systematic Technology in 1973 from Marquette University in Milwaukee. He has worked in sculpture and design since 1968. Wanner founded Wanner Sculpture Studio in 1970 in Milwaukee, where he works with his son Jordan Wanner. The sculptor is inspired by his faith as well as the work of other artists. "The sculptural style of David and Jordan is rooted in the contemporary European tradition of sculpture, as exemplified in the works of Meštrović, Bourdelli, Rodin, Barlach, Kolbe, Marcks, and others."[3] He currently works on both private commissions and ecclesiastical sculptures.[2]
References
- v
- t
- e
- The Victorious Charge
- Family
- The Calling
- Wisconsin Workers Memorial
- Wind Leaves
- Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil
- The Great Double
- Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans
- Solomon Juneau
- Leif, the Discoverer
- Letter Carriers' Monument
- Argo
- Bronze Fonz
- Walkways Through the Wall
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Referee
- Immigrant Mother
- King Gambrinus
- RiverSculpture!
- Gertie the Duck
- General Douglas MacArthur
- The Spirit of Polonia
- World War I Memorial Flagpole
- Pedestrian Drama
- Midsummer Carnival Shaft
- Acqua Grylli
- Laureate
- Diana
- Trigon
- Pere Jacques Marquette
- Spanish–American War Soldier
- Ruins X
- Ex Stasis
- City Yard
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial
- Peter John
- A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky
- Rainbow Machine
- Topiary Lucere
- Dancing Through Life
- Mother Teresa Monument
- Jacques Marquette
- You Rise Above the World
- The Last Alarm
- John Plankinton
- Celebrating the Arts
- Christian Wahl
- Elk
- On Watch
- Pattern
- Lapham Memorial
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Music
- Fishing
- Spirit of the Firefighter
- Dauntless Guardian
- Buildings 1992
- Gear 23
- All in the Air at Once
- First Flight
- Sea of the Ear
- Kindred Ties
- Cleopatra's Wedge
- Float
- Polyphony
- Boy with Goose
- Eight Stone Lions
- Three Bronze Discs
- Holocaust Memorial
- Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology
- Blue Dress Park
- Sentinels
- Hermes
- Milwaukee
- Eclipse
- 'X' Intertwining
- Compass
- Erastus B. Wolcott
- Sharing the Load
- Robert Burns
- Near Here
- Compass
- Walk Like a River
- Spillover II
- Tip
- Jantar-Mantar
- Cass Street Park
- Brady Street Beasts
- Connect
- Fairies Candles
- Menomonee
- Count Casimir Pulaski
- Spirit of Commerce
- Bay View Series
- A Place to Sit
- Stratiformis
- The Hill Climber
- Deflected Jets
- Angel in a Cage
- R. D. Whitehead Monument
- Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs
- T. A. Chapman Memorial
- Nature Belle
- Oops, Missed
- Space Game
- Engine Company No. 10
- William A. Starke Memorial
- Steel Reborn
- Red Flower Rising
- Equestrian statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Patrick Cudahy Memorial
- SOARING
- Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress
- Edge Elements
- Ribbons VI
- Bridge
- Stone Bracelet
- Untitled
- Quartet
- Tending the Fire
- Bird and Fish
- The Sower
- The Reaper
- Giving Gifts
- Watertower
- Henry Bergh
- Goethe–Schiller Monument
- Chrysalis
- The Ideal Scout
- Uptown Triangles
- Tree of Life
- Magic Grove
- Steuben Monument
- Kneeling Camels
- Teamwork
- Aaron Monument
- Yount Monument
- Selig Monument
- Uecker Monument
- Fire and Water
- Vliet Street Commons
- Miller Valley Veterans Monument
- Children of the West End
- Sinai
- Wandering Rocks
- Sea Form (Atlantic)
- Sky Fence
- Floating Sculpture No. 3
- Mo, Ni, Que
- Trio
- Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9
- Way Four
- Compound Junior
- Salem No. 7
- Bremen Town Musicians
- Ancestor
- Queen of Sheba
- Rhythm in Space
- Peristyle, Three Lines
- Orizzontale
- Embrace
- Ursa Major
- Three Graces
- Large Torso, Arch
- Double Up
- Upstart
- The Lovers (di Suvero)
- Poland
- Axeltree
- Orbits
- Ritual II
- Hara
- Olympus
- The Lovers (Daen)
- Tensione No. 2
- The Source
- Rainbow
- Unfolding
- Vegetative Sculpture I
- Round About
- Lodgepole
- Twist for Max
- Bench-Stone
- Windfall
- Knife Tree
- Conversations with Magic Stones, Figure Three
- Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three)
- Kumo
- Untitled
- Arch
- Epicenter
- Epicenter II
- III Columns
- Flight
- Pin Oak I