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#Fred #Smiths #Wisconsin #Concrete #Park

In 1948, after years as a lumberjack in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Fred Smith (1886-1976) retired to his 120-acre homestead just outside of the small town of Phillips. But retirement didn’t take.

Despite being in his 60s and nearly crippled with arthritis, Smith embarked on one of the most improbable and fantastical art careers imaginable, creating 237 life-size and larger-than-life sculptures of people, animals and events from history, from local lore, and from Smith’s fertile imagination. The concrete sculptures, embellished with colored glass, fill the land around his home and the Rock Garden Tavern, a bar he built and operated on his property.

With no art training, Fred Smith created incredible works of wonder during a mystifying 16-year creative frenzy.  

Smith dubbed his mind-boggling and wondrously whimsical collection of self-taught art the Wisconsin Concrete Park. Today, nearly fifty years after his death, the park remains a masterwork of 20th century vernacular art environments, open to a curious and enthralled public – just as Smith had always wanted.

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