Nationality
American
Artist Dates
1930-2010
Mathias Wernerus 1
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Date of Work
ca. 1976
Medium
Super 8 film
Identification #
JSP-MW-76.001
Collection/Provenance
Art & Design Study Collection: James Smith Pierce Film Collection
Status
Stored: JSP.FAST.FILM BOX 2
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Artist Bio
Born in Brooklyn, New York, James Smith Pierce received his PhD in art history from Harvard University. During his career as a professor, Pierce also became an accomplished artist, whose artworks were included in important exhibitions (including a show on land art at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC) and books on contemporary earthworks and site-specific sculpture. Pierce was also a photographer, exhibition curator, and art collector.
Additional Information
About Mathias Wernerus:
Mathias H. Wernerus was born in 1873 in Kettenis, Germany, now a part of Belgium. Wernerus immigrated to American and entered the St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee in 1904. He was official ordained as a Catholic priest in 1907. Wernerus became the pastor of the Holy Ghost Church in Dickeyville, Wisconsin in 1918. Wernerus was inspired by the Grotto of Redemption in Iowa and engaged his parishioners to help transform the small church and its surrounding land into a similar grotto.
His first works, flower vases adorned in pieces of glass, were made for a cemetery memorial in 1920. Wernerus began work on the Grotto of the Holy Eucharist in 1924, a concrete shrine which he embellished with various materials such as shells, glass, and pieces of broken ceramics. Until 1930, Wernerus and his parishioners went on to decorate several more grottos and shrines. The church itself was decorated in a similar fashion and contained the a shrine to the virgin Mary inside, a depiction of the tree of life on one of the outer walls, and two embellished flags on either side of the building.
The church and surrounding shrines and grottos were officially dedicated on Sunday, September 14, 1930. Wernerus died of pneumonia the following year in 1931 and all further construction on the property stopped. The Holy Ghost Church and surrounding property are still open to the public for tours. The church maintains a devoted following which worship in a separate building erected in 1913 to house its growing numbers.
Condition
Very good.
Condition Notes
Digitally preserved 2021.
Rights
Images and film are provided for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced in any form without written consent. ©University of North Dakota. All rights reserved.