Tony Evers brings back Milwaukee-inspired painting that Scott Walker took down

Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MAPLE BLUFF - Gov. Tony Evers returned a hyper-realistic painting of children in Milwaukee to the governor's mansion Friday that Gov. Scott Walker took down eight years ago.

Artist David Lenz, who from the start intended his painting "Wishes in the Wind" to be hung in the mansion, called the picture's return "bittersweet in reverse."

At an unveiling at the mansion Friday, Evers said placing the painting above a fireplace at the governor's mansion amounted to a "homecoming" that would remind public officials their actions have consequences for children. 

"Looking into their eyes should remind us of the responsibility we all share to work together to ensure a bright future for all kids in Wisconsin," Evers said.

"Wishes in the Wind," a David Lenz 2010 oil that was removed from the governor's mansion during Scott Walker's term has been returned by Gov. Tony Evers.

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Hours later, Walker shot back on Twitter, noting the new governor had taken down a Civil War-themed painting to put up Lenz's artwork.

Lenz's painting depicts three children on a Milwaukee street playing with bubble wands. Lenz put in the painting a girl who was featured in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column on homelessness, a girl who belongs to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and a boy whose father and brother were killed by a drunken driver.

Lenz, the boy and Richard Pieper, who funded the project with his wife, Suzanne, were at Friday's unveiling. 

"Wishes in the Wind" hangs above a fireplace in the governor's mansion before being removed by Scott Walker and first lady Tonette Walker in 2011. Gov. Tony Evers returned it to the same location in the mansion on Friday, April 5, 2019.

Former Gov. Jim Doyle — who was also at Friday's event — in 2010 placed the painting in the governor's mansion, as intended. Walker took it down and replaced it with a painting of Old Abe, the Civil War-era bald eagle from Wisconsin.

Lenz criticized the move at the time, calling the sidelining of his painting "symbolic" in light of Walker's cuts to education funding. 

The painting was then loaned to the Milwaukee Central Library. 

"The moment for me was profoundly bittersweet. Bitter because the painting would no longer fulfill those, I think, laudable dreams and goals, but also sweet because the painting would hang in that beautiful library downtown," Lenz said Friday.

"And now that the painting is back here at the residence, I guess you could say it's bittersweet in reverse. It left the library but it came back home."

Pieper said he was overjoyed to see the painting back at the mansion.

"It has to be in the mansion," he said. "It has to be hung. And if it isn’t, then, you don’t get to keep it. And the intent — at least our intent — is to remind folks about those in our society that may be at some moment in life disadvantaged."

At the time the painting was taken down, Walker officials said the governor and first lady Tonette Walker redecorated the mansion to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. They noted more people would see the painting at the library than at the mansion.

Walker echoed that point Friday on Twitter. 

"We put up the painting of Old Abe to honor the more than 91,000 soldiers from Wisconsin in the Civil War, including the 12,000 who paid the ultimate sacrifice," he wrote.

In another tweet, he wrote that an alternative headline could be written about Evers putting Lenz's painting up, one that said: "@GovEvers takes down Old Abe painting honoring Civil War soldiers from WI."

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.