Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

Luis Jiménez made the present work in preparation for his famed blue mustang, the monumental sculpture that led to the artist's tragic death. Commissioned by the Denver International Airport (DEN) in 1992, Mustang/Mesteño is a 32-foot tall, 9,000-pound fiberglass sculpture of a vivid blue horse rearing on its hind legs, with popping veins and blazing neon eyes—and partially modeled after Jiménez’s own stallion, Blackjack. Known for his figurative work blending pop culture imagery with the mythos of the American Southwest, Jiménez created several, smaller-scale sculptures of horses prior to Mustang/Mesteño, one of which is in the collection of the University of Oklahoma. After prolonging the completion of the commission for years, in 2006 Jiménez had finished painting the mustang’s head when one of the work’s three sections fell from its hoist and severed an artery in the artist's leg, killing him. After some debate, Mustang/Mesteño was finished posthumously by Jiménez’s studio staff and family, along with lowrider painters Richard LaVato and Camillo Nuñez, and installed at DEN in 2008, where it has been nicknamed “Blucifer” and continues to captivate travelers and locals alike.