Monday, November 19, 2007

BOB SCRIVER BIOGRAPHY


The cover of this book on Amazon is outdated. The "real" cover is a portrait of Bob in his cowboy hat with "Lone Cowboy" at his shoulder.

Brian W. Dippie's foreword says:

Western art, as a sub-field of American art, has been shunned, ignored, disdained—and passionately loved. Those who love it continue to look hopefully for signs on the horizon that others have come to see the light... Scriver, with deep roots in the community where he was born in 1914, Browning, Montana, on the Blackfeet Reservation just east of Glacier National Park, concentrated on wildlife, rodeo and traditional Blackfeet culture in creating an impressive body of work over a sculptural career spanning more than forty years before his death in 1999.

Bronze Inside and Out
is a study of Bob Scriver and a meditation on the place of his bronzes within the Western art tradition. But it is much more than that. It is the best book we have on a working Western artist—at once intimate (Mary Scriver was married to the artist), objective, tough-minded and affectionate. It is ingeniously structured around a brilliant conceit, the stages of creating a bronze sculpture which are here made to correspond to the human life span... Here, Bob Scriver and his art become works in progress. We follow his struggles to express his personal vision, the hard effort necessary to make art and a career of art in an isolated Western town, the frustrations and realities of the commerce of art, the ups and downs of achieving the celebrity status that sells art, and throughout, we see the linkages between character, values and a specific artistic achievement. More than any other book that I can think of, Bronze Inside and Out puts a human face on Western art—indeed, all art. It invites us to ponder the very nature of the creative process.

NOW AT AMAZON:

Bronze Inside and Out: A Biographical Memoir of Bob Scriver (Legacies Shared) by Mary Strachan Scriver (Paperback - Oct 2007)
Buy new: $44.95 $29.67
Available for Pre-order
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

Also see:

Blackfeet: Artists of the Northern Plains : The Scriver Collection of Blackfeet Indian Artifacts and Related Objects, 1894-1990 by Bob Scriver (Hardcover - Dec 1991)
2 Used & new from $799.00

No More Buffalo by Bob Scriver (Hardcover - Aug 1982)
Buy new: $45.00 9 Used & new from $25.95
In Stock
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

An Honest Try by Bob Scriver (Hardcover - Jun 1975)
Buy new: $45.00 11 Used & new from $6.00
In Stock
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.


(A book by Phil Scriver is also listed. Phil Scriver is NOT related to Bob Scriver, though he put a photo of Bob Scriver's Fort Benton statue of Lewis, Clark, Sacajawea and Pompey on the front of his book.)

1 comment:

Whisky Prajer said...

That's a lovely cover, Mary. Congratulations!