Over a career spanning four decades, sculptor André Harvey created works great and small, from Stella, a life-size pig now ensconced in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to exquisitely detailed 18 and 22 karat gold jewelry. Goats ate his sketch pad as he tried to capture their likeness. Harvey died in 2018 at 76. His widow and advocate, Bobbie Rush Harvey, is the author of a new book, “André Harvey Sculptor,” which chronicles their life and art.
You and André met when you were both 15 and attending the Sanford School, which was then a boarding school. Tell us a bit about your courtship.
Our first big date was when we were seniors and saw Dinah Washington at Village Vanguard, the jazz club in New York City. We were 17 and underage but got in anyway, which was wonderful because I loved jazz. Then we got tickets to see Robert Frost read poetry at the University of Delaware.
As young newlyweds, you soaked up the art scene in New York and traveled abroad. Was that as fun as it sounds?
Our life was exciting throughout. Everything was new and different, so we had to think and learn. We hitchhiked through Europe when we were 23. Little did we know that when we were in the south of France, André would meet a sculptor and it would change the trajectory of his work from teaching and publishing to art. When we got back, he did an apprenticeship with [renowned sculptor] Charles Park for free and did his own work at night.
Your work at New Bolton veterinary center provided access to some of the large animals André sculpted. When his career started taking off, you gave up your research and your artistic pursuits as a weaver to promote his art. Was that difficult?
I worked on research at New Bolton and would do weaving at night when I made the shift into representing André. I didn’t feel that I was giving up my work. I thrived on moving forward.
Of all the exciting places you’ve lived, what brought you to back to Rockland, Delaware?
Nature was here; the Brandywine was here.
What inspired you to create this book?
I first wanted to do a catalogue raisonné, a book that represents all of an artist’s work. But that wouldn’t have shown André’s depth of experience, the way he lived his life. My writing is an explanation for how it all happened, the flow of the work. In the beginning, it was less complicated, single pieces instead of multiple parts. A turtle was a turtle, a leaping frog was a leaping frog. Then we get into more complex pieces, the baby robins in the nest with a morning glory. His tree frog sculpture has 23 parts. The ears were cast separately for Chloe and Lucinda, the bronze goats in the Idea Garden at Longwood Gardens.
“André Harvey Sculptor,” written and edited by Bobbie Harvey, is available at Longwood Gardens and Huxley & Hiro on Market Street in Wilmington. Clyde Hill Publishing, $109; andreharvey.com
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