1924 - 2011
Harry Jackson left home when he was fourteen years old, hitchhiking to Pitchfork Ranch in Wyoming where he worked for four years, starting a life-long fascination for horses and the American West. He went to Chicago in the late 1930s where he studied at the Art Institute. After serving in the United States Marines in the South Pacific during World War II, he went to New York in 1946 and studied with Tamayo and Hans Hoffman and became close friends with Jackson Pollock and other Abstract Expressionists. He has two solo exhibitions at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1952 and 1953.
In 1954 Jackson broke away from abstract expressionism and went to Europe to study more traditional forms of art. He was able to return there in 1957 when he went to Italy on a Fulbright and Italian government grants. In 1958, he learned to sculpt at the Vignali-Tommasi Foundry in Pietrasanta. He began producing bronzes with western subjects and, in 1960, a one-artist show of these works was held at the Knoedler Gallery, New York.
A versatile artist, Jackson has received major commissions for paintings, sculptures, and mosaics from the Coe Foundation for the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Museum, Cody, Wyoming, and from the R. K. Mellon Foundation for the Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburg. In 1969, Time Inc. commissioned Jackson to create a sculpture of John Wayne, a photograph of which appeared on the cover of the August 8, 1969, issue of Time Magazine. Jackson's Two Champs was the official gift of state from President and Mrs. Ford to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England in 1976. In 1972, he published Lost Wax Bronze Casting which details the technique of lost wax casting which he learned in Italy.
In 1954 Jackson broke away from abstract expressionism and went to Europe to study more traditional forms of art. He was able to return there in 1957 when he went to Italy on a Fulbright and Italian government grants. In 1958, he learned to sculpt at the Vignali-Tommasi Foundry in Pietrasanta. He began producing bronzes with western subjects and, in 1960, a one-artist show of these works was held at the Knoedler Gallery, New York.
A versatile artist, Jackson has received major commissions for paintings, sculptures, and mosaics from the Coe Foundation for the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Museum, Cody, Wyoming, and from the R. K. Mellon Foundation for the Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburg. In 1969, Time Inc. commissioned Jackson to create a sculpture of John Wayne, a photograph of which appeared on the cover of the August 8, 1969, issue of Time Magazine. Jackson's Two Champs was the official gift of state from President and Mrs. Ford to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England in 1976. In 1972, he published Lost Wax Bronze Casting which details the technique of lost wax casting which he learned in Italy.
