Harry Jackson

Harry Jackson (1924-2011)

Born in Chicago in 1924, Jackson lived in both Lost Cabin, Wyoming and Camariorre, Italy where he sculpted bronze cowboy figures then painted over them. “It’s just plain jack-ass-ery to say that painting my bronzes makes them look like wood. Hell, nobody complains that painting over canvas detracts from the intrinsic quality of the canvas, but critics still believe I’m defiling bronze when I paint over it.” Brought up near the stables and stockyards, Jackson recalled, “All I was good at was drawing, riding, and running away.” At fourteen, he hopped a train for Wyoming and became a cowboy. Encouraged by a local artist, he was soon proficient enough to serve as the youngest official combat artist for the Marines in World War II. After the war, he studied painting with the Abstract Expressionists in New York City. A trip to Italy in 1954 returned him to realistic themes, and in 1956 he was commissioned to paint two heroic scenes of the American West. Among his studies for the paintings were figures in wax. When the patron saw the waxes, he ordered the cast in bronze, and Jackson became a full-time sculptor. His 1960 New York City show helped pay for the studio in Wyoming and the foundry in Italy. Jackson’s bronzes are now in public collection around the world and have been featured in Life and Time, as well as Southwest Art. His commissioned works include heroic statues of historical subjects and portraits that are not always Western. Jackson died on April 25, 2011.