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“This is one of my favorite paintings because of the combination of the location and the subject,” says James Bama. “I had the chance to attend two different ceremonies this holy man performed. He’s a Crow Indian and a member of the Whistling Water Clan. The Crow are the only Plains tribe with a clan system. I think there are about ten different clans in the tribe and the Whistling Water Clan is the largest. That makes him a very important person in Crow society and an impressive subject to paint.”
“The Holy City is a lava formation about eight miles from my house. It is in the Shoshone National Forest, which leads into Yellowstone National Park. The same volcanic activity that created Yellowstone’s landscape formed these. They are very dramatic. Putting the two together made a great deal of sense to me because they are both such moving subjects. At first take, one would think that they represent two very different kinds of inspiration, but the more you think about it, the more you realize they actually belong together.”
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James Bama was born in 1926 and grew up in the Northeast. He followed his
early interest in art through New York’s specialized High School of Music and
Art and the Art Students League. As a professional, Bama has earned a
reputation for several facets of his talent. He freelanced briefly before
spending fifteen years at the respected Charles E. Cooper Studios—at the time,
the country’s top firm of illustrators—and more freelancing followed. Bama’s
activities during this period were highlighted by artwork for the New York
Giants football team, the Baseball and Football Halls of Fame, the U.S. Air
Force and The Saturday Evening Post. Fans of pop culture may know him best as
the artist who portrayed Doc Savage on sixty-two memorable book covers. Then
Bama decided it was finally time to do what he most wanted to do. He moved
west to Wyoming, where an artist “can trace the beginnings of Western history;
see the oldest weapons, saddles and guns and be close to Indian culture.” He
sold his first Western fine art painting soon after the move.
The distinctive work of James Bama combines tradition with modern realities.
In his much-acclaimed studies, Bama shows the contemporary West preserving its
traditional culture. His portraits of inhabitants of the plains and mountains
capture the true character of the West.
Today the paintings of James Bama are part of many prestigious collections.
Bama has been represented in major exhibitions throughout the West and has
been presented in one-man shows in New York City. Bantam Books published The
Western Art of James Bama in 1975 and The Art of James Bama in 1993. Jim was
inducted into the Illustrator’s Hall of Fame June 28, 2000. Through his
portraits of real people of the new West re-creating their history and
heritage, Bama pays homage to the Old West and is renowned in yet another
realm of the art world.
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