His death on April 20, 2000, at the age of 80, created a void in the ranks of artistic sculptors of the American West, a group he inherently led due to the fact that he created artistically a frontier life he had personally experienced. |
| For more than a quarter of a century, Jim Hamilton quietly
built an international following of museums and collectors who regarded him as one of the
world's finest western bronze sculptors. And for good reason. Mr. Hamilton's work is an authentic, predominantly firsthand representation of the settling of the American West from the turn of the 20th century to the turn of the 21st century. Here are 100 years of documentation in artistic medium by an extraordinarily gifted and intuitive child of the prairie. Jim Hamilton grew up on a ranch in the blue stem cattle country of the Osage hills in northeastern Oklahoma. Beginning at the age of around 48, he began sculpting from his ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, not far from his childhood digs. As an only child, he rode his horse to a two room county school through rain, sleet and snow and bright sunny Spring days when the prairie magically transformed itself into a kaleidoscope of color, leaving colorful images on the mind of its young student, Jim. But the greater degree of his education came from his rancher father, his companion and teacher during most of his formative years, and from the land and its people. |
 Although
Mr. Hamilton seemed to inherit an artistic nature from his mother and grandmother, both
fine seamstresses and embroiderers, he was a rancher until the age of 48, when his true
creativity began to surface. When his responsibilities to his family -- three
daughters Lee, Janie and Kay and wife Dorothy Lee -- and family life and
ranching commanded his attention, he built furniture for their home. Its unique sculptural
form foreshadowed his creativity. Later he experimented with abstract wood sculpture.
Then one day, he said in later years, a friend handed him a ball of sculpting
wax. "He told me, 'See what
you can do with this', and that was it. That's what I've been looking for, for nearly
fifty years." |
| Jim Hamilton was self taught, although he would
often say that no
one is truly self-taught, that we all learn from others in one fashion or another. He
learned to work with wax and molding materials from fellow artists and studied anatomy,
composition and movement independently. His approach to his work was anything but casual.
He was a serious art student whose knowledge rivaled that of any academic. His examples and
art heroes included Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin and Andrew Wyeth. Mr. Hamilton ably captured the warmth, the humanity and the quiet power of the true Western heritage. He documented a vanishing lifestyle with unsurpassed eloquence, sculpting the rugged lives of early 20th century settlers, Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers, whose lives touched those of his family and himself. "My work communicates my emotional response to the values that have made this nation and its people great," he once said. "These values and emotions are not of any particular time or place; are not provincial, but are eternal truths that give beauty to life." The nobler qualities of his subjects - their bravery, honor, spirit, their love, their soul - are effectively communicated in his bronzes. He touched their very essence because it was his as well; and it transferred to his work. Gaze upon the piece "Morning Prayer" or "The New Ranch," portraying the hopeful young couple embracing as they survey their new home, and you will glimpse, as Jim Hamilton did, the very soul of those subjects.
Supporters and collectors of his work numbered many and could be found around the globe. Back here at home in Pawhuska, he counted among his friends several legendary Oklahomans and their offspring including Gene Autry, Jim Rogers (son of Will Rogers), movie actor Ben Johnson, Jr. (whose father, Ben Johnson, is revered as a Cowboy Hall of Fame honoree), and John Joseph Mathews, nationally renowned Osage Indian author. Successful from the start of his artist's career, Jim Hamilton's work continues to touch the hearts of collectors and museum goers. "Western art endures because it tells a real story," says Pat Wall. "the West is the heart and soul of what this country was and still is. And nobody expresses it better than Jim Hamilton." We will all miss the endearing qualities of Jim Hamilton, the man -- his slow drawl and gravel-voiced storytelling, that incredible twinkle in his eye and the way one corner of his mouth turned up spontaneously when something slightly funny came to mind. Not to mention the love and encouragement he shared so freely with friends and family. |
Step into Jim Hamilton's Gallery |
Pat Wall, founder and publisher of Art Gallery International
magazine, once said that "Jim Hamilton is one of the greatest artistic historians of today ...
What takes his work above the technicians' work is his ability to portray the
(American) Western way
of life in a warm and caring manner that everyone can relate to. His work is spontaneity,
energy and emotion. That's what separates the men from the boys in art." 
