Bronze Medallion w/ Man's Hoop Earring Plenty Coupes

Inscribed on verso "From Eddie Basha"

Commissioned by Eddie Basha as a gift to various friends--these medallions can function as an arty paperweight or could be mounted in a shadow box frame created by your favorite framer. Not everyone has over $5,000 to purchase a genuine work of art by one of America's best loved western artists, Joe Beeler.

There are 27 different medallions by Joe Beeler produced for Mr. Basha. They range in edition size from 1000 to 1200. The metals used were bronze, pewter with a matte finish and pewter with a shiny finish. The last medallion was commissioned in 2006, the year Beeler died.

(1931-2006) Joe Neil Beeler was a painter and sculptor of Western Americana. His father was part Cherokee and Joe Beeler participated with other Native American boys in war dances. He studied art at Tulsa University which was interrupted by the Korean War, after which he completed his studies at Tulsa University and continued at the Art Center School in Los Angeles.

His first solo exhibition was at the Gilcrease Museum in 1960. He helped to found the Cowboy Artists of America group in 1965. A close friend of the late Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona. Beeler was commissioned by the town of Paradise Valley in 2003 to create a 10-foot sculpture of the US Senator. The bronze serves as the focus of a memorial park that commemorates Arizona's favorite son.

Joe Beeler died in his saddle of an apparent heart attack. Having spent some quality time with Joe, I was struck by his utterly genuine and at the same time impressive sense of humility. No pretense was offered. Joe appreciated his life and his career, as well as his family.