TRUE NORTH 2020 lost an important member of its sculpture project when larger-than-life Texas folk artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade passed away on Christmas Eve 2019. We were thrilled and honored when Bob’s widow, Lisa Wade—understanding how important the boulevard sculpture project was to him—made certain it moved forward as he had planned. With the type of collaborative work he had done with Wade for over 30 years, longtime friend, artist and fabricator, Will Larson, finalized and installed the late great’s last sculpture—down to every minute detail carefully designed by the artist.
A boulevard favorite among young and old alike, Wade’s El Gallo Monument—replete with colorful piglets and a “monumental” rooster—was inspired by his childhood fascination with “roadside stuff . . . during long trips on those old Texas highways.” Other outdoor works include 40’ tall cowboy boots in San Antonio, 25’ wide longhorns at UT Alumni Center in Austin and a 70’ tall saxophone now playing at the Orange Show in Houston (and all in the Guinness Book of World Records).
Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio
Wade was born in El Paso, received his BFA from University of Texas Austin and his M.A. from University of California Berkeley. He was the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants and was included in Biennials in Paris, New Orleans, and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York City. Collectors include Chase Manhattan Bank, AT&T, The Menil Collection, Houston, and the Austin Museum of Art. There are three books of his work and a feature in “Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in American Art.”
Bob Wade, c. 1970s NYC, with his 40’ sculpture Iggy.
After Iggy appeared in an exhibition in western New York in the 1970s, Wade’s 40’ iguana found its home on the roof of the Lone Star Café—a Texas-themed honky-tonk at 5th Avenue and 13th Street, Manhattan. After the music venue closed in 1989, Iggy was acquired by the Fort Worth Zoo where it lives today. More at New York Times.
Close friend and …Big-Ass Art book collaborator, W. K. Stratton of Texas Monthly wrote shortly after Wade’s death:
Bob was an accomplished artist, best known for his outsize sculptures of cowboy boots and an iguana and his series of paintings of cowgirls based on postcards from the early 1900s. He had earned a master’s degree in painting from UC-Berkeley and could quote Clement Greenberg and other important art scholars. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney and other highbrow museums, even though, as art critic Dave Hickey observed, the biggest influence on Daddy-O’s work seemed to be the homecoming float. Bob’s sculptures and paintings are taken seriously by his peers, yet they are also as much fun as any parade. His fans include legions who have never read a word of art criticism or set foot in a gallery. That was fine by Bob. Full Texas Monthly article.
Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio
There is a 1999 documentary film about his work, Too High, Too Wide and Too Long: A Texas-Style Road Trip, directed by Karen Dinitz and Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art, published by Texas A&M University Press, being released in mid-November. A documentary, Flight of the Iguana, is being produced by Austin Museum of Popular Culture. See Flight of the Iguana trailer.
All sculptures are for sale, and TRUE NORTH artists have generously agreed to donate 20% of any sales back to the project’s designated fund for future exhibitions. TRUE NORTH and the Houston Heights Association, its 501(c)(3) nonprofit sponsor/partner, would like to thank our community- and arts-minded 2020 Underwriters—it simply does not happen without your support. Fundraising is now underway to support the upcoming 2021 exhibition. Please visit our website for those benefits and more information on the project, artists and sculptures at TRUE NORTH WEBSITE. We may be reached at boulevardart@houstonheights.org if you have any questions at all.
Co-curators Linda Eyles, Simon Eyles, Chris Silkwood, Kelly Simmons
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Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio
