Donald Pfister (1930–2024) was a self-taught artist who grew up on a dairy farm in rural Lafayette County, Wisconsin. His parents were first-generation Americans, descended from Swiss and Norwegian immigrants.
In 2006, at age 76, he constructed a wooden model of the East Wiota Lutheran Church—the church he attended as a child. He then completed ten more Wisconsin church models, in addition to a model of the farmhouse he grew up in and the parsonage of the East Wiota church. Each was made to-scale, done through a process of “foot-pacing” (measuring the building’s size with his feet). The models are constructed of repurposed and found materials, including wood, gift wrapping paper, photographs, and paint.
Now in the collection of the Arts Center, this exhibition represents the first public showing of these works.
ImageL Donald Pfister, Gospel Hall; Brodhead, Wisconsin, 1872 (detail), 2006–24; wood, paint, paper, and plastic; 9 3/4 x 9 x 11 1/2 in. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of the artist's children.
