Ninety Something-Mallards

Artist / Maker Maynard Reece (American, 1920 - 2020)

Date2011

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed size: 46 × 70 in. (116.8 × 177.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineAcquired by University Museums. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU2017.124

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextAt age nineteen, aspiring artist Maynard Reece was introduced to Jay N. “Ding” Darling, Pulitzer Prize winning syndicated cartoonist, nationally acclaimed conservationist, and fine artist. University Museums has a large collection of Darlings fine art prints, printing plates, and some cartoons. Darling soon became Reece’s aesthetic mentor critiquing the younger artist’s images of wildlife and native landscapes. They were colleagues and friends for the next twenty-three years. In 1948, Maynard Reece began an unmatched legacy, winning five Federal Duck Stamp competitions (1948, 1951, 1959, 1969, and 1971) more than any other artist to date. Reece’s wildlife art is nationally recognized and has been published in national magazines, wildlife publications and reproduced as commemorative stamps for wildlife foundations. His oil paintings, prints and sculptures are prized by collectors. Artist Statement: In the year 2000 my wife, June, decided that I should make an 80 mallard painting to celebrate my 80th birthday. It was such a success I decided to make a 2005 and a 2010 painting portraying 85 and 90 mallards to honor my 85th and 90th birthdays. I asked my two boys how they would divide the three paintings when I died, and they said, “Just make a 95 mallard painting.” So this “Ninety Something – Mallards” painting has 93 mallards in it and every year I’m alive I will add another mallard. - Maynard Reece, 2013

Locations