Dave McGary
1958-2013
When Lightning Strikes
MEDIUM: Bronze, cast 22/30
DIMENSIONS: 24 inches overall height, 39 inches long
Signed and dated 1991
SOLD FOR: $15,210.00
Including Buyers Premium
2023 - APRIL,
LOT 126
Additional Information
Literature:
Dave McGary: American Realism in Bronze — A Twenty Year Retrospective, Michael Duty, McGary Studios, Ruidoso, NM, 1997: p. 122.
Meticulous detail is the hallmark of a work by Dave McGary. The New Mexico artist takes it to an intense level in When Lightning Strikes: individual brass tacks are visible on the rifle, the figure’s shirt is painstakingly colored and has realistic folds and texture, rows of beads are visible on the rider’s moccasins and the fringe on the pants seems to bounce with the horse’s gallop. Much of this detail starts at the armature stage of the sculpture. “In the same sort of way that the finished sculpture will ‘speak’ to the viewer, the armature ‘speaks’ to McGary,” writes Michael Duty in Dave McGary: American Realism in Bronze — A Twenty Year Retrospective. “As he says, if it does not ‘breathe’ in this form, there is no way that it will succeed. No amount of attention to the intricate details of costume that he is known for will substitute for a piece that lacks ‘breath.’”