Well-Aimed Lightning: the Abstract Art of Harry Jackson

For Immediate Release Contact: Sharon Dynak, [email protected], or Viv Banks, [email protected]

WELL-AIMED LIGHTNING: THE ABSTRACT ART OF HARRY JACKSON

OPENS AT UCROSS FOUNDATION ART GALLERY FEBRUARY 9

PUBLIC RECEPTION SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21

February 2, 2015 – Ucross, Wyoming – Harry Jackson (1924-2011) is renowned throughout the region as an important artist of the West, but many people are unaware that Jackson was one of America’s great abstract expressionist painters. Now, an exhibition focused solely on Jackson’s abstract art, the first such show of his work since 1953, opens at the Ucross Foundation Art Gallery on February 9. A public reception for Well-Aimed Lightning: The Abstract Art of Harry Jackson will take place on Saturday, February 21, from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. and will include a gallery talk by the artist’s eldest son, Matt Jackson, trustee of the Harry Jackson Trust, and Gordon McConnell, artist, writer, and curator, who has written an exhibition essay for the show.

Harry Jackson was born in Chicago in 1924 and first spent time in Wyoming in 1938, when he worked as a cowboy on the Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse. He enlisted in the Marines at age 18 and was wounded in combat in the Central Pacific battles of Tarawa in 1943 and Saipan in 1944. At 20, he became an official Marine Corps Combat Artist, the youngest ever, while stationed in Los Angeles. McConnell’s exhibition essay, which gives a brilliant overview of Jackson’s abstract expressionist career, highlights Harry Jackson’s connections to Jackson Pollock as well as Willem de Kooning. Jackson also spent much time in Europe where he studied the Old Masters and had a studio in Italy.

The works for this exhibition were selected by Matt Jackson, and as McConnell puts it: “His insight in separating this group of paintings, drawings, collages and monoprints from his father’s figurative works, and putting together the acclaimed early works with the important but virtually unknown late paintings is a revelation. This exhibition is a vital contribution to the reassessment of this great American artist’s achievement.” The show includes several canvases from Jackson’s Betio: Light and War (which consists of 56 canvases in total), presented for the first time outside of the artist’s studio.

Well-Aimed Lightning: The Abstract Art of Harry Jackson, which will also include a video about Jackson’s life, is on view through Friday, April 10. Ucross Foundation’s Art Gallery is supported in part through funding from The Laura Jane Musser Fund and BNSF Railways Foundation.

Ucross Foundation Art Gallery is located at 30 Big Red Lane in Ucross, about ½ mile east of the intersection of Highways 14 and 16. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., with special hours and group arrangements available upon request. For further information, call Ucross Foundation at (307) 737-2291.