Wolfsonian–FIU develops ‘Wrestler’ bookends


The search for the perfect bookend ends at The Wolfsonian-FIU: the “Wrestler” has muscled its way into the museum’s Dynamo Museum Shop.

The Wrestler bookend will be celebrated in style, with a reception on Friday, June 24, at 6 p.m. at The Wolfsonian-FIU. The event is free and open to the public.

Wrestler bookends, based on the much-loved 6’6″, 475-lbs. standing-sentinel “Wrestler” statue that commands the museum’s lobby with its impressive muscles and solid bulk, are now available at the shop.

The bookends, created in collaboration with Levenger, retail for $99 (two or more for $88 apiece). A portion of the proceeds of all sales benefits The Wolfsonian-FIU.

The looming “Wrestler,” which has inspired other popular products available at the Dynamo, including a flash drive, a notebook and jewelry, is quite familiar to museum visitors. Prominently located in the first-floor lobby, “The Wrestler” greets museum visitors and sets the stage for the galleries with its singular combination of modern craftsmanship, gravity and whimsy.

The statue was created in 1929 by American sculptor Dudley Vaill Talcott (1899-1986) from the high-tech material of his day, aluminum, which was hailed as “a metal of this generation” by The American Architect magazine in 1929. It was a sculpture of that century: “The Wrestler” was monumentally modern and embodied the grand era in which it was created, a time in America’s history in which there was an unrivaled, unflinching confidence in the future.

Cast by the Cleveland Foundry of the United States Aluminum Company, the statue stood as a symbol of America’s emergence as an industrial power and its 20th-century coming of age. It was originally on display at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Anyone interested in purchasing the bookend(s) can contact the Dynamo Museum Shop at 305-535-2680.

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