Richard MacDonald Orpheus and Eurydice, Revisited Bronze Sculpture Signed Contemporary Art

Artist: Richard MacDonald
Title: Orpheus and Eurydice, Revisited
Medium: Bronze sculpture
Size: 29" x 22" x 24” 83 lbs.
Inscription: Signed
Condition: Very good quality overall, please request condition report for full details
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

Richard MacDonald is best recognized for his figurative and bronze sculpture. MacDonald has famously worked with performers, dancers, and athletes from Cirque du Soleil, the Royal Ballet, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and the American Ballet Theatre. His sculptures successfully capture the beauty of the human body. By using the ancient lost-wax process, MacDonald’s bronzes embody a dedication to precision and details and capture fluid movements and moments suspended in time.

The Greek myth of Orpheus, the son of the Olympian god Apollo, and Eurydice, his beautiful wife, is one of love, passion, and weakness of the human spirit. Eurydice died when a snake bit her while fleeing from a shepherd chasing her. Orpheus mourned her death through music, a gift that moved the god Hades in the Underworld. Hades allowed Orpheus to take his wife with one condition; he was not to look at her until they stepped out to the light or he would lose her forever. Not able to hear his wife’s footsteps, Orpheus suspected foul play and before reaching the exit he looked back only to see the shadow of Eurydice being whisked away. A heartbroken Orpheus saw his death as the only answer to be with his love forever.

Orpheus and Eurydice, Revisited is a contemporary approach to the tragic Greek myth. MacDonald captures an emotional scene by highlighting the beauty of human anatomy with two contrasting poses. Orpheus and Eurydice, Revisited comes with a gallery certificate of authenticity and is in very good quality overall. Please request a condition report for full details.

Devoted to exploring of the human form, Richard MacDonald is often regarded as the world’s leading figurative sculptor today. This ingenious aesthete has been creating bronze sculptures with a relentless enthusiasm for over thirty years. Often described as Realism, his work is a part of the neo-figurative movement and it is greatly inspired by motion and the art of dance.

Originally, Richard MacDonald was classically trained as a painter, having graduated Cum laude from the Art Center College of Design in 1971. His career began in the world of illustration, where the artist was frequently required to illustrate sporting events, including the Olympics. After a decade in illustration, he wanted to pursue another medium and his fascination with human body brought him to sculpture.

In 1983, MacDonald officially retired as an illustrator and immersed himself into a three-dimensional creative universe. His talent helped accelerate his career as a sculptor, as the artist quickly rose to international prominence. Celebrated for its dynamism, refinement and superb quality, sculptures by Richard MacDonald were greatly sought after, while numerous prestigious commissions followed. Simultaneously, he never ceased to explore the stunning physicality and aesthetics of the human body, regularly working with live models in his studio.

Ballet was hardly a novel subject in art and Richard MacDonald does follow the footsteps of Degas and even Rodin. Still, the works of the contemporary sculptor are different, meticulously made and anatomically correct to the slightest detail, testifying to the artist’s unparalleled perfectionism. Still, they are not a literal translation of a dancer’s body, but a true artistic portrayal of an paradigmatic character or a scene, imbued with personal traits and a vast emotive spectrum radiating from every inch of the piece. MacDonald’s statues are idealized images of harmony, with masterly balanced compositions, depicted the impossible postures and appearing to barely touch the ground.

As a renowned artist, Richard MacDonald worked with some of the most prominent dancers and performers in the world, notably with members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, and most recently - Cirque du Soleil. A devout philanthropist, he was honored and awarded by great international organizations, including the United States Olympic Committee.
In the manner and with the commitment of the greatest sculptors from the history of art, Richard MacDonald continues to create sculptures impregnated with passion and energy, celebrating the supreme qualities of both the spiritual and the material body. His works are admired by connoisseurs and aficionados alike, as some of the most coveted collectibles in the world of contemporary sculpture.
Richard MacDonald was born in Pasadena, California in 1946. He keeps a studio in Monterey, California, where he is based.