JERRY GOROSKI

JERRY GOROSKI is the consultant appraisar to whom I refer inquiries about Scriver bronzes. He is formally trained and certified to do assessments and knew Bob Scriver as well as working for the CM Russell Museum in Great Falls. His gallery is called "Open Range Art."

http://openrangeart.com/update/appraisals-consulting/

406-868.1272

jerryopenrange@yahoo.com

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

"TO TAKE A SCALP"





"To Take a Scalp" by Bob Scriver

These photos were kindly sent to me by Adam R. Brice.  The bronze is part of his own collection.

I see that the piece has the "real" Scriver patina, which is a deep green with variations in it.  We learned to patine like that by imitating the French Animaliers.  In fact, Bob bought a Barye bronze of a big cat taking down a gazelle so we could study it.  The animaliers and Rodin were the early developers of the art of bronze casting in Paris when the fashion moved away from Italian marble -- all those white statues.

I wasn't with Bob when he made this piece, but he talked about it.  There was contention among the old timers about which one of them was the last to take a scalp.  Both or maybe three claimed that as teenagers they accompanied war parties and took a scalp, but were so repelled by it that they never did it again.  The problem with such boasts is that it puts the guy on the line between being a potent warrior and being a law-breaker who would be punished by whites or at least a savage.    Bob tried to imagine what it would really be like and this piece resulted.  He did have a few real scalps in his artifact collection, but was hazy (strategically) about where they came from.



No comments: