This item is reserved for Buyer A. Any other attempt to purchase will be cancelled. Thanks - BV
Here we have an unusual bronze sculpture by renown sculptor Stephen Maxon depicting two lizards eating each other via their tails. Lizard Brain is officially in the house. This primitive sculpture is so unusual because the scene, a reference to Ouroboros, usually contains one serpent eating its own tail. We have double trouble with this one. I can't find another one like it anywhere. And around and around we go...she's a mesmerizing powerhouse that will look great siting on your desk or shelf.
The rare lizard art comes out of a Twin Cities collector's estate. I was told she had too much money and too much time. She spent both on traveling to faraway lands picking up rare and unusual bronze sculptures. My guess is it was produced in the 1990s or early 2000s. The piece is not signed.
Here's a brief description of Ouroboros courtesy of Wikipedia:
The ouroboros or uroborus is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. Originating in ancient Egyptian iconography, the ouroboros entered western tradition via Greek magical tradition and was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most notably in alchemy. The term derives from Ancient Greek: οὐροβόρος, from οὐρά (oura), "tail" + βορά, "food",from βιβρώσκω (bibrōskō), "I eat". The ouroboros is often interpreted as a symbol for eternal cyclic renewal or a cycle of life, death and rebirth. The skin-sloughing process of snakes symbolizes the transmigration of souls, the snake biting its own tail is a fertility symbol. The tail of the snake is a phallic symbol, the mouth is a yonic or womb-like symbol.
Here's Carl Jung's take on it:
The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The Ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which ... unquestionably stems from man's unconscious
Crazy deep!
Here's a biography for Stephen Maxon courtesy of his website: http://www.max-cast.com/artists.php?action=view&id=3
Born into a family of itinerant acrobats, young Stephen went lost in the western wilderness, having dropped out of the back of a medicine-show wagon. Living on snake venom and cactus thorns, the toddler was adopted and raised by wolves. Later, after being rescued by cowboys, he rode from town to town on bucking broncos searching for his parents and eking out a meager living wrestling grizzly bears.
Knighted at fourteen, he became a mercenary in Central Africa struggling to protect endangered plants and wildlife and continuing his search for his long-lost family. Laboring to discover new strains of communicable diseases, he worked tirelessly to stomp out athelete's foot and halitosis.
He began sculpting at six months, twisting the bars of his play pen into a striking likeness of the family dog. Later he studied with Donatello, Giacommetti and Rodin, teaching the later all he knew. After years of study and toil, Maxon renounced his MFA to become an outsider artist. Finding casting much less difficult than bending steel bars with his teeth, he developed new ways of melting metal via thought control.
After making and losing several fortunes, he currently lives in a trailer in rural Iowa receiving messages from outer space in his dental fillings. He enjoys telling lies and chewing gum.
The lizard sculpture measures 5" wide, 5" deep, and 1 1/4" tall. There is beautiful bronze patina throughout the piece. A solid bronze straight from the underground. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO boxes). Free shipping on the lizard bronze.
Dog eat Dog rolls of the tongue, but this is the visual you want. A wicked little gem.
