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An exceptional Modernist cast-bronze sculpture by Juan Hamilton, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1984

ex: Anne Marion Collection, Fort Worth, TX

John Bruce (Juan) Hamilton (1945-2025) is one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures in the history of Modern Art in America. The general outlines of his story are fairly well known; how the young 28 year-old handsome itinerant Dallas, Texas artist showed up unexpectedly one day in 1973 at the 86 year-old famous doyenne of American Modernism, Georgia O’Keefe’s (1887-1986) studio door at her home in the tiny, remote Hispanic village of Abiquiu, New Mexico asking for handyman work or other odd chores, how she nearly sent him away, but at the last moment asked if he could help her pack up a piece of art. Thus, their artistic and personal partnership and friendship began and over the next thirteen years until her death flourished to the point where Juan Hamilton essentially became in turn O'Keeffe's studio assistant, constant companion and closest advisor, creative muse and apprentice, administrator, legacy protector and, ultimately,

her talented modern art protege.

Hamilton and O’Keeffe had a strong and lasting meeting of the minds and of the hearts, one might say, she inspired,

guided and helped him and in turn he inspired, guided and helped her. That he later inherited the vast majority of her very considerable and valuable estate has made Juan Hamilton an object of some controversy with some questioning his motivations, but he has donated very generously from her bequests to museums safeguarding and promoting her legacy

and he has steadfastly energetically participated in projects she initiated and promoted. It is difficult to doubt his devotion to her life and legacy, particularly if you have had the opportunity to discuss this with him directly as we have.

Comments on Juan Hamilton’s Sculptures

by The Smithsonian American Art Museum

“In 1973 Juan Hamilton, a trained ceramicist, settled in New Mexico, and for the next thirteen years served as studio assistant for the legendary painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986). During this extended period, Hamilton's own work in clay and bronze evolved into sculptural statements characterized by a mysterious, timeless order. Uniform or irregular spheres, ovoid as well as teardrop shapes, tall monoliths or flattened pebblelike forms, they suggest black rocks worn perfectly smooth over millennia by glaciers or running streams.

The smooth, curving contours of his primordial open or closed forms are based not only on Hamilton's early experience as a potter, or his knowledge of the works of sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp.

“There is prejudice against us because she is an older woman and I’m young and somewhat handsome.”

-Juan Hamilton

"Certain forms just keep coming up, become part of my vocabulary. There's certainly some basis in natural forms, but they come from inside me. I feel them three-dimensionally, in the center of my chest. Some people see things but I feel them.”

-Juan Hamilton

The sculpture has a most interesting and excellent provenance. It was acquired several years ago from the estate of

its original owner, the well-known Texas heiress, ranch owner, devoted Modernist art collector, patron and important philanthropist, Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion (1938-2020). Anne Marion built one of America’s and the world’s finest private collections of Modern art including many works by Georgia O’Keeffe and Juan Hamilton and she, along with her husband, John L. Marion, is perhaps now best known as the inspired co-Creator and co-Founder of the now-iconic Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico which, fittingly, features a number of Juan Hamilton’s sculptures in its permanent collection. It is not documented where Anne Marion originally obtained this particular Juan Hamilton sculpture, but it is almost certain that she acquired it directly from Juan Hamilton or Georgia O’Keeffe. After Anne Marion’s death in 2020, the sculpture was acquired from her estate by the prominent Navajo artist, Tony Abeyta (b.1965) of Santa Fe, a longtime friend and art world colleague of ours. Tony sold us the sculpture in 2022.

as we have referred to previously, we had the good personal fortune to have had something of a brief social acquaintance with Juan Hamilton some time ago and we shared several meals and other meetings with him in Santa Fe over the course of several years in the early 1990’s. We remember him speaking seriously and quite passionately about Georgia O’Keeffe, the artist and the person and how deeply he admired her and her work and the lasting impressions and lessons he learned from being with her and observing her closely over the years they spent together. We particularly remember him saying that she helped him achieve what he referred to an artistic “clarity of vision.”

This beautifully spare and strikingly elegant Modern sculptural piece most certainly demonstrates that.

Price $9,250

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Provenance:

_____

The Artist, 1984

Anne Marion Collection, Fort Worth, TX, Unknown-2020

Tony Abeyta Collection, Santa Fe, NM, 2020-2022

Fine Arts of the Southwest, Santa Fe, NM, 2022-Present

This very smoothly polished ovoid or teardrop-shaped bronze sculpture was made in October, 1984 of beautifully and carefully patinated cast bronze in a very small limited edition of only seven pieces of which this piece is number one.

It measures 6 1/2" in height, 8" in width at its widest point and is 7 1/2" in depth. The sculpture is in excellent original condition overall especially for its now 41 years of age, with several insignificant minor scuffs and surface nicks.

The almost glowing perfection of the smooth polished surface of the orb-like ovoid shape is striking and remarkable and there is a large multi-colored spot on one side probably resulting from the casting of the molten bronze like the famous spot on the surface of the Planet Jupiter that is so artistic in its appearance one can only believe it was put there intentionally and deliberately. The sculpture is properly and attractively signed and dated, very interestingly dated for Halloween Day 1984, as follows in Hamilton’s customary inscised signature on the bottom:

“JUAN

1/7”

A few brief observations on the unique and strikingly beautiful organic color of the sculpture. It's a deep, rich and complex bronze color with overtones and various hues of earthy brown, tan, steely grey, beige, deep green and dark orange, not unlike a large stylized and abstracted mushroom.

Juan Hamilton’s own Modernist sculptural artworks, such as this lovely cast bronze sculpture, are highly-accomplished and beautifully realized dramatic and uniquely organic elemental forms which arise as much from the spontaneous expression of feelings and impressions as they do from specific intentionality. In their presence they beckon you with attractive, unusually tactile impressions leading one to want to reach out and embrace them just as Georgia O’Keeffe is doing in the photo below. In this essential organic-ness, they achieve some sort of international human artistic expression, they bear some distinct similarity of appearance and feeling to some of the works of Hamilton’s fellow worldwide Modernist sculptors, European artist Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and the Japanese-American artist, Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988).

In private conversation, Hamilton made reference, somewhat mysteriously, to a particular O'Keeffe painting which he considered to be the direct inspiration for some of his smooth, elemental sculptural forms.

"The O'Keeffe painting that inspired Juan Hamilton's sculptures is an untitled work, typically referred to as Abstraction or Untitled (Rock), which he kept in his personal collection throughout his life. "

-Anonymous

Juan Hamilton’s sculptural works in bronze and clay are fairly rare and somewhat difficult to come by today, we have had only two of these pieces including this one in the past 40 years. They are proudly held and prominently featured in the collections of numerous prominent museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. and The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The Smithsonian has written quite perceptively and eloquently about Juan Hamilton’s work and some of their comments are reproduced below here:

“The utter simplicity and smoothness of Hamilton's sculptures creates special casting and finishing problems: there is no exterior roughness to hide the welds that bind the individually cast sections. After further surface sanding, the outer shell of the bronze vessel was painstakingly finished with dozens of coats of water-sanded lacquer and a final burnishing with polishing compounds. The smooth, dark, glistening surface is reminiscent of burnished Pueblo Indian pottery.

In its perfection of form and finish, Juan Hamilton reveals his complete dedication to craftsmanship. But, he writes, being a good technician doesn't make one a good artist: "I think the function of art is to focus people's attention, and that my role is as a visionary. [My] pieces are about mystery, about time and the effects of time, about the interior and exterior worlds—about a certain kind of purity, distillation.”

-Jeremy Adamson KPMG Peat Marwick Collection of American Craft: A Gift to the Renwick Gallery

(Washington, D.C.: Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994

At left, an interior view of Georgia O'Keeffe's home and studio in Abiquiu, New Mexico showing a large Juan Hamilton bronze sculptural piece on a table in front of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting entitled "From a Day with Juan". O'Keeffe did a series of six or seven of these "From a Day with Juan" paintings, another of which, "From a Day with Juan IV", 1977 is shown at right. At center, Georgia O'Keeffe and Juan Hamilton at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, 1977.

Left photo by Herb Lotz. Left photo source and © National Geographic Four Corners Region. Center photo source Malcolm Varon, © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM.

Juan Hamilton, 1983.

Above, two exceptional modern American sculptural works; Juan Hamilton's bronze orb sitting atop a walnut burl

side table by George Nakashima. To view our website listing of this George Nakashima table, please click here.

Above left, Constantin Brancusi, "Torso of a Young Girl", onyx on stone base, 1922, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania. Above right, Isamu Noguchi "Grey Sun", 1967, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Above left, Juan Hamilton and Georgia O'Keeffe in her living room, Abiquiu, NM, 1980.

At right, Georgia O'Keeffe observing and admiring one of Juan Hamilton's sculptures.

They are predicated on the indigenous skills and traditions of adobe building in New Mexico, which Hamilton patiently gained as he restored an old, abandoned house. The artist's elemental shapes also evoke the timeless eloquence of Japanese Zen gardens. During a trip to Japan in 1970, Hamilton's artistic vision was profoundly affected be his experience of the stillness, harmony, and spiritual peace of these meditative settings. Resemblances and external influences notwithstanding, the shapes of Juan Hamilton's sculptures originate instinctively."Certain forms just keep coming up, become part of my vocabulary. There's certainly some basis in natural forms, but they come from inside me. I feel them three-dimensionally, in the center of my chest. Some people see things but I feel them.”