''Kneeling Camels'' is a

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

work by Paul Moulon located at front entrance of the Tripoli Shrine Temple, a civic organization in the Concordia neighborhood west of downtown

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The work consists of two large camels carved from stone. The two sculptures were installed in 1928 at a cost of $10,000.

Description

The camels flank the stairway entrance to the Tripoli Shrine Temple on West Wisconsin Avenue. The carving on each camel includes details such as reins and saddle, both with tassel decoration. Temple business administrator George Vignyvich told the '' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', that the camels are "one of the symbols used by the Shrine. Other Tripoli shrines use live camels. We use concrete ones."

Information

The camels were commissioned by Louis Kuehn, a Shrine leader and founder of the Milwaukee Corrugating Company, the largest sheet metal company in the Midwest, and an organizer of the Milwaukee Rolling Mill. Kuehn arranged the commission while traveling in Europe.

Reception

The camels are popular among visitors, many of whom attempt to climb on top of them for photo opportunities.

Condition

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

volunteers conducting a condition survey for the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

urgently recommended treatment for the sculptures in 1997.

References

{{MilwaukeePublicArt Outdoor sculptures in Milwaukee Depictions of kneeling Camels in art Stone sculptures in Wisconsin 1928 sculptures 1920s establishments in Wisconsin Shriners Animal sculptures in Wisconsin Sculptures of mammals