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Beaverhead Sheep

Artist Theodore Waddell (American, born 1941)
Publisher The Lawrence Lithography Workshop (American, founded 1979)
Date2008
MediumLithograph on Arches Cover black paper
DimensionsImage and sheet: 22 1/4 × 30 inches (56.52 × 76.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of C. Richard and Evelyn Belger
Object number2023.40.92
SignedSigned on the lower edge of the image: T Waddell 2008
MarkingsSigned on the lower edge of the image: 6/20 Beaverhead Sheep I
Edition/State/Proof6/20
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 214
Collections
DescriptionTwenty-four “impressionistic” sheep against a blue and green grassy landscape in Cézanne-like brushstrokes. All have their heads down, munching grass. Seventeen sheep are clustered in the bottom half of the print while seven sheep are more widely spaced in the upper half. A darker blue strip at the top, suggests hills or overcast sky.Gallery Label

At first, this lithograph may appear like an abstract composition. Loosely rendered with tusche (black liquid used to draw on the lithography stone), sheep emerge from and are enveloped by the plain on which they graze. Beaverhead Sheep resulted from Michael Sims’s invitation to artist and cattle rancher Theodore Waddell to repurpose unsigned trial proofs from a previous collaboration. “Years later I said, you ought to come back and do something with these,” Sims recalls. “Ted canceled out some sheep, added others, and added new color to build a new image.”

Provenance

C. Richard Belger and Evelyn Craft Belger, Kansas City, MO;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2013.

Copyright© Theodore Waddell
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