SOM#112, Richard McDermott Miller, Escape and Capture, 1985

From the collection of John Birks

Numbers Issued: 750 Bronze

FROM THE ARTIST

For several years I have been creating sculptural groups in bronze inspired by ancient metopes. They are the carved square relief panels used in Greek architecture of the Doric order. Usually, each ancient metope contained two figures as on the Parthenon in Athens.

I felt that I could create a medal using this metope idea, but I wanted the figures to be in the full round. Also I wanted to create a feeling of openness because “metope” literally translates as 'space between'. That is why I have cut actual openings through the medal. They let each side flow into the other. Obverse and reverse connect in the center.

My subject, "Escape and Capture", is the lively interaction between men and women, a theme both ancient and modern. Deliberately ambiguous about relationships as old as the human race, the medal poses the two-sided question: Who escapes from whom? Who captures whom?" - Richard Dermott Miller, 1985

The Sculpture of Richard McDermott Miller, by Joseph Veach Noble, Executive Director of The Society of Medalists

Here is sculpture that is bold and unabashedly highly sensual. For over twenty years Richard McDermott Miller has created striking and provocative nudes in his studio in the artists colony of SoHo in New York City.

The art critic, John Gruen, has written, "The ease with which Miller gives ... these fluid, beautifully executed bronzes ... their sense of life borders on the remarkable. It is of course a question of technical prowess, but more than that, the work attets to an observant and keenly perceptive eye -- one that searches out and tellingly communicates the natural grace of the body."

Richard Miller's sculpture is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington as well as many distinguished collections. He has exhibited in one-man shows in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and London. The Illustrated London News reported, "These sculptures are traditional but non-academic … personal works with the artist's own unmistakable style. Some have repose and serenity ... others the sense of arrested motion ... of poise barely but exquisitely maintained. Their appeal is immediate and tactile as well as visual."

That comment about Richard Miller's work being tactile is well chosen, and it certainly applies to his new medal "Escape and Capture". After all, medals are held in the hand, and the innovative use of space -- the actual piercing of the medal -- heightens the third-dimensional quality. This medal is a technical tour de force as well as an outstanding work of sculpture.

Richard McDermott Miller has been honored with two gold medals by the National Academy of Design and a distinguished award by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He is a member of the Sculptor's Guild, the National Academy of Design and a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society.