Rejected Statue Pays Off For Ore. Sculptor -- Flap Sparks Customers, New Museum

JOSEPH, Ore. - A statue of Oregon Trail settlers rejected by big-city art critics has paid off in publicity and an offer for a copy for twice the money paid sculptor David Manuel for the original.

The bronze of a white, Bible-toting Christian pioneer family received national attention when it was denounced as an idealization of the early West that ignores contributions from other racial and religious groups.

Manuel says the controversy has not hurt his reputation.

In fact, at 53, he has just opened a new museum in this remote eastern Oregon town of 1,500. His much-maligned statue, "The Promised Land," has drawn a $250,000 offer for a copy.

"I couldn't begin to afford that kind of good advertising," Manuel says.

The statue was commissioned for display in a renovated Portland park. But a city arts committee rejected the statue, calling it "an inappropriate and inaccurate representation of the settlers of Oregon," and a poor work of art to boot.

The statue now is on temporary display at the Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland.

Manuel thinks he delivered what was asked.

"They wanted me to depict something 150 years ago, and so that's what I showed," he says. "It was a Christian migration. That Bible was a good book, and they used that."

Sure, Manuel lost some sleep when the flap erupted in March. But he no longer seems concerned about where his statue goes or even how it's received.

"If I had wanted to make a statue to please everyone, I probably should have just made a wagon wheel," Manuel says. "But then I probably wouldn't have had the right amount of spokes or something."

Manuel and his wife, Lee, opened a log museum and gallery on Joseph's main street over the weekend, and they predict as many as 500 people a day will come to see Manuel's art and extensive collection of Indian artifacts and Western wagons.

Manuel was born near College Place, Wash., the son of an onion farmer. When he was 9, he won his first art prize in a magazine-sponsored contest judged by Norman Rockwell. He's self-taught, heeding his parents' advice not to study art in college out of concern that his style would be contaminated by abstract influences.

Manuel settled in the Wallowa Valley because of its Indian history. Most of his themes are drawn from the Nez Perce Indians, who were chased from their valley homes at gunpoint in 1877.

Among his works is "The Protector," a likeness of Chief Joseph with two children. Thirty-five copies of "The Protector" sell for $13,500 each. He currently is working on "Chief Joseph on Horseback" - 50 pieces priced at $10,000 each.

Among Manuel's new customers is actor Jack Nicholson, who Lee Manuel says visited their Joseph gallery a few weeks ago and plunked down $10,000 for another statue of Chief Joseph, called "Rolling Thunder."

Manuel is credited for starting the Wallowa Valley's art boom when he arrived in the early 1980s from Walla Walla. The area now boasts more than a dozen major art galleries and as many as 100 artists.

Bruce Penoske, head of the chamber of commerce and president of the Bank of Wallowa County, says criticism of the Manuels is part envy and part ignorance.

"You always get a small faction who don't like to see other people get ahead," Penoske says. "They are greatly appreciated. The new people they bring to the community have definite economic impact on other kinds of businesses."