"Mythological Head" by Prince Monyo, Expressionist Bronze Sculpture

This Abstract Expressionist bronze sculpture by Prince Monyo Simon Mihailescu-Nasturel (b. 1926), a Romanian-American self-taught sculptor and painter, is entitled "Mythological Head". The artist, who eventually owned his own foundry and gallery in Palm Beach, Florida, sculpted this work while he was living, learning, and working in Toronto, where he got his start as an artist. It is signed "Monyo 1/7" on the left front corner of the base. The polished bronze sculpture has artist-applied white and greenish textured and patinated highlights. It has been on display in the previous owner's garden where it developed an attractive natural, weathered patina as well. It has a bold, yet mellow presence and is admirable at any angle. It would work well on a pedestal in the center of a room or in front of a mirror.

It springs from the artist's inner vision of a mythological head--and one can see in it the silhouette of Eastern European female headdresses or Roman Empire aristocratic coiffures-- and it possesses a voluptuously feminine mystique. At the same time, it has similarities to woodland lichens or bracket fungi, and therefore is perfect for the garden, or in a special setting indoors where the echo of nature is desired.

Prince Monyo molded his subject in clay and then cast it in solid bronze. It weighs eighty pounds. Many of his inspirations originated while he was in solitary confinement as a political prisoner in Romania, after a coup that overthrew his family from the throne. To keep his sanity, he spent his time living in his imagination visualizing childhood experiences, fantasizing his personal desires, reminiscing about his college days studying religion and history, and his time as a guerrilla in the mountains of Romania -- all of which found life in his art later on.

The photographs show reflections of surrounding light, while the white and greenish areas are artist-applied patinas.