BEYOND THE GOLDEN SKIES mark magg ior i
Mark Maggiori’s first views of America were framed within the front windshield of a car making its way from New York to San Francisco. That month-long trip, filled with majestic views of the national parks and timeless glimpses of the West, was made when Mark was only 15 years old and on vacation far from his home in France, but its impact would ripple throughout his life and set into motion his great fascination with the West.
Years later, back in Paris, he would enroll at the famous Academie Jullian, where Western greats Ernest L. Blumenschein, Burt Geer Phillips and Joseph Henry Sharp had also studied before they helped form the Taos Society of Artists.
After being formally trained in academic drawing, Mark’s life would take an important detour through music after he formed a successful band that led to many opportunities in Europe, including other artistic disciplines such as animation, photography and filmmaking—each one informing his artistic creativity in unique ways.
After great success in the music industry, Mark was lured back to the United States thanks to his muse, creative equal and wife Petecia Lefawnhawk. They journeyed through the West and their trips immediately took him back to that original road trip two decades earlier, the trip that opened his eyes to the beauty of the American West. It was then, at the age of 36, he made the decision to paint Western art. They staked temporary claims in out-of-the-way places such as Chloride and Kingman, Arizona, where the desert offered its stunning inspiration and where Mark quickly began to produce some of the most audacious Western paintings of a new generation— audacious because Mark was still brand new to the Western art world, and also because he was an outsider, a Frenchman, with a profoundly unique view of the American cowboy. In the space of just a few short years Mark rose through the ranks to become one of the premier Western artists working today.
His work brought many new opportunities, including important solo and group shows, and a significant showing at the 2017 Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, where he won the Sam Houston award. He also began to expand more artistically: he started to work more in plein air, he spent time on ranches with cowboys and on horseback to acquaint himself more with the Western way of life. He spent time in New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming and began adding additional figures to his works and new kinds of compositions to his growing arsenal.
Like Henry Farny, another Frenchman who made his way to the Southwest to paint its interesting inhabitants, Mark has carved a unique place for himself within Western art, a place where his work—part Frank Tenney Johnson, part Herbert “Buck” Dunton, with shades of Tom Ryan and Bill Owen—continues to provoke the minds of young and old Western collectors alike.
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Living with the Mountains
This catalogue represents a portion of works available. For more information on additional works, please view the entire show online at www.legacygallery.com. Sale will be conducted by draw and live auction. Please contact the gallery for more details, (480) 945-1113.
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48" x 38" Oil
BEYOND THE GOLDEN SKIES mark maggiori
S aturday , m arch 11 th 2023
Saturday, March 11th
10:00 am
“My Artistic Journey”
presentation by Mark Maggiori
5:00 - 7:00 pm
artist reception & sale
draw will start at 6:00 pm, live auction to follow
Sunday, March 12th
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
poster signing
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Main Street · Scottsdale, AZ 85251 · 480-945-1113 225 Canyon Road · Santa Fe, NM 85701
7178
S cott S dale , a rizona
Where is your sacred place? The place you consider your shrine?
For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Sangre De Cristo mountain range has been the sacred place for the Pueblo Natives of Taos, New Mexico. The Pueblo people refer to their origins from the Blue Lake as "Ba Whyea", a mountain lake situated in the mountains of Northern New Mexico.
If you ever witness a sunset in the Taos valley you would probably understand why this place is considered sacred by the Pueblo Natives.
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Entering the Shrine 50" x 56" Oil
Arizona is a special place. Vermilion Cliffs is one of those places that engraves a mark on your soul for the rest of your life. I’ve spent a lot of hours staring at this Mesa. Every hour of the day. I’ve heard hoof beats and felt heartbeats. This painting is about the Wilderness and all the pretty things that exist despite of our human nature. They were here before us and will be here after us. I cherish them. They make us humble.
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Heartbeats 45" x 60" Oil
This is a depiction of two riders going about their day. Rounding up cattle, riding the range, searching for mavericks… and during the summer months, sometimes in the evening, the air gets charged with a magnetic force and the thunderheads are taking over the mighty sky. This is pure magic and it never gets old. Next time you find your self in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, maybe you’ll remember this image.
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Sonoran Magnetism 48" x 53" Oil
Arizona is the most fascinating and iconic place in the USA. For those who know, I don’t need to explain. For everyone else, I wish you will one day experience this land. Such beauty and raw hostile nature dancing together.
Horseback is one of the best ways to go around the wilderness and see things the way they were before. The cowboys are still out there riding and enjoying the scenery everyday.
This painting tells the story of three amigos and it takes place east of Phoenix by the Superstition Mountains. I like to imagine a scenario when I see a painting. I have mine. What is yours?
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Superstition, The Land of Thorn
58" x 60" Oil
On the shoot for this piece I kept thinking about the name Taos, and what it meant. So I asked Lyle, my model, 'What do you call this land?' and he told me it's called Tuah Tah. He then pointed all over, to the mountains, into town, towards the Taos Pueblo it was all Tuah Tah. Lyle said "The people, the land, it's all Tuah Tah. This is our land where we always have been and always will be". So it felt right to call the painting that.
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Tuah Tah
54" x 80" Oil
Every time you find yourself outside in Arizona at sunset, especially during monsoon season, you have this impression of being thrown into a colored world; pink, purple, vibrant, out of this world. The sky sometimes turns into something that you would have never imagined. And even if you lived there all your life, every day has its new surprises. In this painting I wanted to push the hues further to bring the viewer into this atmosphere that is so specific to the American Southwest.
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The Emerald Sky 50" x 54" Oil
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2500 Acres at Stake 18" x 14" Oil
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In the Middle Runs a River
36" x 32" Oil
This is a special piece of a special man. Grant Golliher is from the Diamond Cross Ranch in Wyoming. This man has a very unique connection with horses. Being around him was such an incredible experience as you get to feel what life must have been centuries ago. This could be your dad or your grandpa or great grandpa, and it would be the same image. Grant is the quintessence of the American Cowboy.
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The Horse Whisperer
24" x 30" Oil
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Silence of the Canyon Walls
40" x 40" Oil
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Mariposa Afterglow
18" x 32" Oil
21 A Thousand Miles From Home 27" x 40" Oil
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The Kid From Tulsa 23" x 20" Oil
Headed to Payson 11.5" x 20" Oil
Hombre From Tejas 12" x 9" Oil
The First Sun, Study 9" x 12" Oil
We woke up at 3:30 am that morning in Arizona to meet at the trail head in order to reach the top before the first sun. Everyone was there and the horses were loaded. I was told that the Mesa in the back would become so pink that I wouldn’t believe it. Well… I’d do anything to see a magic sunrise. And it happened. Just like they said.
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The First Sun
33" x 40" Oil
AWARDS:
• Don B. Huntley Spirit of the West Award at the Autry’s Masters of the American West, 2018, 2019
• Patron's Choice Award at the Autry's Masters of the American West, 2020
• Night of Artists, Sam Houston Award for Best Painting, Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2017
• Night of Artists, William B. Travis Awards for Patrons Choice, Briscoe Western Art Museum, 201
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
• The Autry Museum of the American West, Masters of the American West, 2018, 2019
• Quest for the West, Eitlejorg Museum, Indianapolis
• Night of Artists, Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2016, 2017
SELECTED COLLECTIONS:
• Permanent collection at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Limited amount of posters available for $80. Poster signing will be Sunday, March 12 from 10 am to 1 pm.
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maggiori Scottsdale, Arizona Entering the Shrine 50" 56" Oil solo show march 11, 2023
BEYOND THE GOLDEN SKIES mark
7178 Main Street · Scottsdale, AZ 85251 · 480-945-1113 225 Canyon Road · Santa Fe, AZ 87501 www.legacygallery.com
