Shafer Gallery Receives Shafer Bronze from Shivel Estate

Barton County Community College’s Shafer Gallery has added another Gus Shafer bronze to its collection thanks to the generosity of the family of the late Great Bend physician, Dr. David Shivel. The family donated “Born to Buck,” a Shafer bronze from Shivel’s collection, bringing the gallery’s number of Shafer bronzes to 31.

Following Shivel’s death in August 2005, his sister, Joan Bachman of Greeley, Colo., sought help from the gallery in storing her brother’s collection until other arrangements could be made. The gallery was glad to help the family and at the same time was pleased to exhibit the pieces on a short-term loan until the family was ready to have them back. In appreciation of the gallery’s assistance, the family donated “Born to Buck” to the gallery in memory of Dr. Shivel and his wife, Patricia.

Gallery director Bill Forst said he had spoken to Shivel in 2003 and was impressed by his collection of bronzes. “I later was surprised and pleased when, through his estate and his sister, one of the bronzes came to us for the gallery,” Forst said.

Shafer wrote about this piece in his book, “Gus Shafer’s West.” Depicting a cowhand on a horse that is rising up on its hind legs as if to buck, the sculpture captures the temperament of a range horse that has not yet been broken.

“Range horses sometimes grew to be 3 or 4 years old before they were touched by man or saddle,” Shafer wrote. “This is not a rodeo piece – it represents the way a hand broke his own horse after pickin’ one from the rough string. We had one horse that, although it was broken to ride, just had to do a little buckin’ every time he was saddled. Today, he probably would be used as buckin’ stock in a rodeo as many of these range horses have become famous buckin’ broncos.”

The sculpture will be exhibited as part of the year-long Gus Shafer Retrospective opening July 16, 2006, and continuing through June 29, 2007, at the Shafer Gallery.

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