Bob La Bobgah Bronze Wall Relief 1981 — Numbered 1/3, Signed

A monumental cast bronze wall relief by Bob La Bobgah — the working name of Pittsburgh sculptor Robert G. Hamilton (1936–2021) — pulled from the artist's earliest documented bronze edition year and standing among the largest known examples of his relief work. Aged verdigris sits over warm bronze base tones, giving the surface the weathered, excavated presence of an artifact recovered from a buried site.

The composition reads as a hierarchical theophany. A female-coded figure with a mask-face and paired upper protrusions — variously legible as horns, antlers, or a ceremonial headdress — dominates the upper field; her breasts and shoulders are flanked by feathered wings that resolve below into a second composite head, a bird beak above a smaller human face, transformation caught mid-act. Her lower body dissolves into cascading scale-or-feather pattern. Two small standing attendants occupy the base register at lower left, while a dense clustered organic mass — variously legible as pomegranate, honeycomb, or egg-spawn — fills the lower right. The vocabulary recurs across La Bobgah's catalogue: bird-human hybrids (Les Deux Oiseaux), archaic feminine figures (Bound Archaic Woman), and the mystery-cult source material he later expanded into his 2007 installation Dada Puppet & The Oracle Trilogy at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Gallery 707.

Numbered 1/3 in an edition of three — among the lowest edition counts in his documented bronze output, where editions of nine and twelve are more typical. Signed "La Bobgah" alongside the artist's circular thumbprint stamp at the lower right, dated 4-18-81 along the lower left. The estate was dispersed through Concept Gallery in Pittsburgh after his death; wall-mounted relief work in this scale is not represented in the published lots from that dispersal, making this an uncommon format within his recorded body of work.

CONDITION

Good. The plaque is heavy and substantial, retaining a full aged verdigris patina with rich tonal variation across the surface. Signs of prior outdoor display are present in the patina development, with no remarkable damage, cracks, or losses observed.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Height × Width × Depth: 24 1/4" × 12 1/2" × 3/4"
• Material: Bronze
• Construction: Wall mountable
• Edition: #1 of 3
• Signed Lower Right: "La Bobgah" with circular thumbprint stamp
• Dated Lower Left: 4-18-81
• Campbell's Soup Can (4" H) Shown for Scale

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Bob La Bobgah was the working name of Robert G. Hamilton (1936–2021), a contemporary American sculptor born in Montreal, Quebec, and based across Philadelphia, Rimersburg, and Pittsburgh's Friendship neighborhood. Trained as a clinical psychologist before turning to art full-time in the early 1970s, Hamilton produced bronzes, clay figures, mixed-media assemblages, photography, and video-performance work rooted in surrealism, archaic feminine mythology, ritual, and his recurring "Circus Theme." His 2007 installation Dada Puppet & The Oracle Trilogy at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Gallery 707 drew critical comparison in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to Hermann Nitsch's Viennese Actionism. He was a member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and his sculptural work has moved through Concept Gallery (Pittsburgh) and 1stDibs, typically with the inscription "The Artist's Studio" as provenance.