“Bronze Inside and Out: A Biographical Memoir of Bob Scriver”
by Mary Strachan Scriver
is now posted on the U of Calgary Press online catalogue.
This is Brian Dippie’s foreword:
Brian W. Dippie
Foreword
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. The subject matter of historical Western art—overwhelmingly nineteenth-century frontier “types,” or “men with the bark on,” as Frederic Remington put it—defines the tradition to this day. An artist like Bob Scriver established a substantial reputation as a Western sculptor. He respected the tradition and worked creatively within it to establish his own vision of the West. He did, of course, do other subjects, but he stayed true to the legacy of masters like Remington and Charles M. Russell who endowed the twentieth century with a particular way of seeing, and understanding, the Old West. 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. Each chapter begins by walking the reader through a stage in the sculptural process, then groups ideas, stories, reminiscences, and biographical data appropriate to that stage. Taken together, the chapters familiarize the reader with the process of creating a bronze from first inspiration to the final patina, and offer as clear an explanation of lost wax casting as one will find anywhere, enlivened by the learn-as-you-go particulars of Scriver’s experiences. 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.
Mary Scriver tells the story of how the book came to be published: I took it first to the U of Nebraska Press who found it shocking (it became a little more censored when I sent it to Calgary) and said it “rose to the level of a magazine article but not a book.” Also, they had at the time a very strong NA woman who had Bob on the “incorrect” list because of the sale of his NA artifacts to the Edmonton provincial museum.
Then the manuscript went to the University of Oklahoma Press where they were willing to accept it but only if I rewrote it to make heroes of the editors (we have a history), took out all the women and removed what one reader called “those tedious hunting stories” which I consider the heart of the book. U of Oklahoma is deeply involved in “cowboy art” as a profit-producing enterprise.
The acquiring editor at the U of Calgary Press was a woman and didn’t know anything about Bob Scriver. She considered it a love story, which it is — a love story not just between a man and a woman but among the land, the Blackfeet and the artist — plus me. Brian Dippie is one of the most respected Western art and history experts, based in Victoria, B.C. He understands Indians, the West, “men with the bark on,” and the concept of the book. He’s the opposite of many of the self-educated executives and curators of the Western art and history institutions.
The U of Calgary Press guys have been terrific — “just right.” (They even answer emails!) Also, a professor of photography, Clyde McConnell, whom I already knew, volunteered to upgrade my scroungy old snapshots for free and has transformed them from keepsakes to illustrations, not of the sculpture but of the man. For instance, Bob in his recliner with our fox cub standing on his head!
Prairie Mary
To order the book:
For customers in the United States, please contact for all order information:
Michigan State University Press
Suite 25, 1405 South Harrison Road, Manly Miles Building
East Lansing, MI 48823-5202
Telephone: 517-355-9543
Fax: 517-432-2611 or 1-800-678-2120
E-mail: msupress@msu.edu
The book is expected to ship to stores in September, 2007.
