Brian Maughan (Montana, b. 1942), "Napi", artist-cast bronze sculpture on wooden base, with incised signature, edition number 4/15, and date, 1980

height 18.5 in. x width 13 in. x depth 10.5 in.

Provenance: Property from an Austin, Texas collector

Brian Maughan received his formal art training at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he earned an MFA in 1968 after initially focusing on large-scale abstract sculpture in welded steel. After studying philosophy at Columbia University, he returned to sculpture in a figurative direction, developing a body of work centered on Native American and Western mythological figures, equestrian subjects, and portraiture. His bronze portraits include notable public figures such as Jimmy Carter, Hank Aaron, Bart Starr, and Bob Uecker, while his later work includes three bronzes created during the 2013 Yellow Springs Bronze Symposium, now installed in a public plaza in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Maughan was also an influential member of the Charlottesville, Virginia, artistic community during the 1980s and 1990s, and his later career in Yellow Springs continued to emphasize figurative bronze sculpture, including a life-size portrait of local philanthropist Wheeling Gaunt that was in progress at the time of his death.