Monumental Bronze Sculptures From Shidoni

Browsers and buyers can surround themselves with fine art of every sort in Santa Fe. Galleries showcase a variety of realistic and abstract contemporary works as well as avant-garde, Native American and Western traditional painting, graphics and sculpture.

One of Santa Fe’s most fascinating places is Shidoni, a sculpture gallery and foundry in the romantically rustic and fashionable suburb of Tesuque.

Shidoni is one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious bronze-sculpture foundries, and has produced many of America’s major works of art.

Many Americans are familiar with Shidoni’s monumental sculptures but lack any knowledge of the foundry. For example, Shidoni produced the beautiful bronze Bruin that sits in the middle of the UCLA campus. It was sculpted by artist Billy Fitzgerald.

In Northern California, Napa Valley’s “The Grape Crusher,” a 15-foot bronze statue designed by Eugene Miles, was made at Shidoni. Cast in 110 pieces, it took about eight months to complete.

The “Pentaceratops Sternbergii,” a 21-foot dinosaur designed by sculptor David A. Thomas for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque, weighs 24,000 pounds and was cast in 80 pieces.

Playground for Youths

Shidoni shows the foundry’s monumental works (those for sale and commissioned pieces waiting for transportation) in two beautiful sculpture gardens.

Gigantic arches and columns are painted in bright colors, Westerners ride horseback, Native Americans are imposing statues and wildly abstract shapes with amusing titles, all displayed in grassy fields against a background of lush greenery.

There’s even a little creek running through the gardens, where visitors can picnic, providing they clean up.

The gallery holds its famous outdoor sculpture show every year from June through September. The show features bronze, steel, stone and wooden sculptures collected from across the United States.

Small Bronze Pieces

In addition, Shidoni makes, shows and sells small works. The foundry’s smaller bronze pieces, as well as sculptures in wood and other materials, along with some two-dimensional paintings and drawings, are displayed in a modern 5,000-square-foot indoor gallery.

Designed specifically to show sculpture, the gallery has high ceilings, takes full advantage of natural light and has a helpful and knowledgeable staff.

The gallery has small one- and two-person shows or larger group shows on a rotating basis, and represents a wide range of artists and styles.

You can see Dallas-based sculptor Liz Hart’s young dancer in “Rehearsal” ($12,000), Robert Summer’s “Western Legacy” (the original model for the sculpture at the Houston Astrodome; 30 copies were made and sell for $12,500 each), Barry Coffin’s “Another Good Indian” (an edition of 15, each $3,000) and Charles Ringer’s kinetic abstraction “Maze,” $4,000. Other limited-edition pieces are available for about $800 and up.

Even if you don’t buy anything, visiting Shidoni may be a special treat, especially if you go on Saturday afternoons when you can watch artisans heating the bronze to 2,000 degrees and carefully pouring the glowing metal into sculpture molds.

Copies Are Exact

The foundry uses the ancient “lost wax” method, a complicated procedure by which works in wax, clay or wood are copied exactly in durable bronze (an alloy of copper, silicone and manganese).

The foundry was founded in 1971 by Tommy Hicks, a Texas sculptor who had been employed for 20 years as a petroleum chemist. Hicks wanted to concentrate on sculpture full time, and the call of a fledgling Santa Fe arts organization that needed a foundry turned out to be Hicks’ calling.

He left his job, sold his piano for $350 to finance the trip West and settled on a 75-acre ranch just north of Santa Fe. He began the foundry in a dilapidated chicken coop. It has grown into a huge modern plant that does about $2 million a year in sales.

Hicks explains that Shidoni is a Navajo word of greeting. He selected the name because he’s “from Texas and friendly, and it would have been too hokey to call it the Howdy Foundry.”

Despite its size and reputation, the foundry has kept its down-to-earth, family-like and friendly atmosphere.