416 The Hunt

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2017 Apr 08 @ 16:11UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price NA
Estimated at 40,000.00 - 60,000.00 USD
The Hunt
Artist: McCarthy, FrankDate of Birth: 1924-2002
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 26 x 40 inches
Signed: Signed lower right
Verso: Signed and titled verso

Frank McCarthy began his career in art working elbow to elbow with many famous illustrators. They painted and brawled together in the 50’s and 60’s, living the Bohemian life in what was called “The Bullpen,” a building in Midtown Manhattan that was, in reality, a hive of artists who lived from assignment to assignment as the Mad Men of the day dreamed up campaigns for pulp novels, cigarettes, lingerie and Oldsmobiles. McCarthy illustrated books and magazine stories and did posters for Hollywood—James Bond films in particular. In 1974, McCarthy shed his journeyman artist role and moved to Arizona, where he set up his easel and created some of the finest action scenes that ever leapt out of the Old West. I can’t help but think of the buffalo hunt diorama at the old Milwaukee Public Museum when I look at The Hunt. I stood in front of that diorama as a kid for as long as my mother would let me. There was something hypnotic about the soundless thunder of the buffalo, about the concentration of animal power, about how the Indians would confront that power and join with it. There was also a little button on the inside of the low wall that curved around the diorama. If you knew about it, and pushed the button, an animatronic rattlesnake would rattle his tail for you.