The Late Bob “Daddy-O” Wade’s Envisioned “El Gallo Monument” Assembly for the Boulevard Sculpture Project Will Be Realized
TRUE NORTH 2020, a Heights Boulevard sculpture project (to be installed March 15), lost one of its own when iconic Texas “roadside assembly” folk artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade passed away on Christmas eve.
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.
—W.K. Stratton, Texas Monthly
We are thrilled and honored that Bob’s vision for the boulevard sculpture project will live on at its originally-planned site – on the esplanade of Heights Boulevard at 18th Street. We are thankful to Bob’s wife, Lisa Wade, his daughter, Rachel Wade, and long-time friend and collaborative fabricator and artist, Will Larson, for making this happen. You can read more about Bob in these articles by Texas Monthly and New York Times:
BOB “DADDY-O” WADE – TEXAS MONTHLY
BOB “DADDY-O” WADE – NEW YORK TIMES
…and learn more about his life and art in the 1999 documentary film about his work, “Too High, Too Wide and Too Long: A Texas-Style Road Trip,” directed by Karen Dinitz. There’s more coming soon as well, as Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art is being published by Texas A&M University Press this fall, and a documentary, “Flight of the Iguana,” is in production by South Austin Museum of Popular Culture.
El Gallo Monument (rendering by Bob Wade) for TRUE NORTH 2020
As his friend and book collaborator Mr. Stratton also said in Texas Monthly, “It’s hard to fathom a world without the Daddy-O.”
Mr. Wade’s installment will join seven more diverse sculptures by Texas-based artists Leticia Bajuyo, Bill Davenport, Vincent Fink, Jack Gron, Joseph Havel, Jack Massing, and Sherry Owens & Art Shirer (collaborating). Please stay tuned to hear more about all of the TRUE NORTH 2020 artists and their wondrous sculptures in the coming months.
TRUE NORTH 2020 will be on exhibition from March 15 through December 15, 2020. If you’d like to learn more about the sculpture project or how you can support it, please visit us online at TRUE NORTH 2020.
