James Bama

Coe Kerr Gallery, New York

Private Collection, Michigan

Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, Reno, 25 July 2009, lot 153

Acquired in 2012 by the present owner

New York, Coe Kerr Gallery; Santa Fe, Gerald Peters Gallery and Wichita Art Museum, James Bama: A Wyoming Realist, 1985

Elmer Kelton, The Art of James Bama, Trumbull, 1993, pp. 60-61, illustrated

James Bama, born in New York City in 1926, began his artistic career training under Frank Reilly at the Art Students League in New York City. He subsequently secured a job at Cooper Studios in Manhattan and quickly became one of the firm’s leading illustrators. Bama produced advertising images for major clients, like General Electric, Coca-Cola, and Ford and for magazines including The Saturday Evening Post. Bama also became the official artist for the New York Giants, is credited with the original artwork for the TV series Bonanza and Star Trek, and covers for the Doc Savage series. Growing tired of deadlines and lack of creative freedom, Bama moved out west in 1968 and became an easel painter dedicated to representing the people of the modern West.

The present depicts Bob Edgar, a close friend and significant influence in Bama’s life. Born in Powell, Wyoming, Edgar spent his life in the Big Horn Basin, earning the nickname “Dead Eye” as a sharpshooting champion. He was also the founder of Old Trail Town, a collection of ghost-town relics simulating the frontier west in Buffalo Bill's original Cody Town, Wyoming, and was considered a respected historian of the American West. Bama’s meticulous attention to detail in Edgar’s clothing, rifle, and the weathered saddle and log cabin background exemplifies his signature hyper-realistic style, bringing the spirit of the contemporary West vividly to life.