THEODORE (TED) WADDELL

Art Brokerage: Theodore (Ted) Waddell is a Montana native raised in Laurel. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Eastern Montana College, and Wayne State University, Detroit (MFA, 1968). He taught at the University of Montana from 1968 to 1976 and has since been a full time artist and rancher. He has had over ninety one-man exhibitions, including a major survey at the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis. In 1968 he joined the UM art faculty, teaching sculpture and design. During the eight years spent living in Arlee and teaching at the University, Waddell created many minimalist-influenced, polished steel sculptures that can still be viewed in many towns and cities across the state. "When we were living in the mountains, making sculpture made sense, and it fit within the context of the narrow mountain valleys," he says. Waddell left the University in 1976, the same year he was granted tenure and associate professor rank, simply saying he was not doing his job. In 1982 Waddell did exhibit a group of his paintings of cattle and landscapes in the sales arena at the Billings livestock auction yard. Soon after, a curator from the Corcoran Gallery of Art came to town, looking for artists to include in a painting biennial, the Second Western State Exhibition; Waddell's paintings were among those chosen. His work was singled out in reviews by the Washington Post and The New York Times, and were the subject of a Newsweek article. His career was launched. The exhibit traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other venues, and Waddell signed on with noted galleries in San Francisco and Reno, Nevada. Contracts soon followed with galleries in Chicago, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Scottsdale, Arizona.