page_title: Harry Jackson (artist)
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Jackson (artist) / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
context_page_description: Harry Andrew Jackson, born Harry Aaron Shapiro Jr., was an American artist. He began his career as a Marine combat artist, then later worked in the abstract expressionist, realist, and American western styles.
context_section_description: Jackson died at the Veterans Health Administration's medical center in Sheridan on April 25, 2011 at the age of 87, following several health issues during his final year. He was survived by three sons, two daughters, and four grandchildren. His oldest son, Matt, manages the Jackson collection and estate in Cody. In August 2013, the Wyoming Arts Council began developing a plan to preserve Jackson's work, which included the participation of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Nicolaysen Art Museum, and the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Matt continued efforts to fundraise the $5 million needed to maintain the collection and found an institution, and he also organized traveling exhibits to showcase his father's work. His goal was to keep the collection together, preferably within Wyoming, but the trust had to begin selling pieces after no offers to fund the preservation of the entire collection were received. Reno's Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sold a series of his artworks on July 23, 2011.
  In 2014, after spending three years assembling and surveying their father's work following his death, Jackson's children searched for an institution to house the collection of more than 5,000 drawings, paintings, and sculptures Jackson had stored and displayed in his home in Cody and foundry in Italy. One of his sons, who serves as trustee of the Harry Jackson Trust, said: "Harry Jackson's body of work can only be fully examined now that he has passed away and stopped creating. The collection tells the full story of an unparalleled artist's life, and it's unlike any other ... [The collection is] something the art world has never had the chance to fully examine, and now that he is absent, we're learning so much more about his invaluable contribution to American art." The collection also included brushes, home videos, photographs, props, reference books, tools, Jackson's business and personal records, and more than 100 volumes of his journals.
  The Nicolaysen Art Museum exhibited The Big Picture: A Look at the Life and Art of Harry Jackson from May to August, 2014. In 2015, Harry Jackson Studios exhibited Betio: Light and War, which consists of 56 paintings, for the first time and in conjunction with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West "Rendezvous Royale" fundraiser. Artist and critic Gordon McConnell, who was a curator for the Yellowstone Art Museum, described the exhibit as a "monumental masterpiece" that "deserves a place among the important paintings of our time." Also showcased were sculptures formerly stored at Jackson's foundry in Italy, along with dozens of other drawings, paintings, and sculptures.
  Institutions with works by Jackson include the American Museum in Britain, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and Smithsonian American Art Museum. His work is in the private collections of the House of Saud, Italian Federal Government, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Vatican. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West houses the largest museum collection of Jackson's work in the United States. Other Wyoming institutions with works by Jackson include the Meeteetse Museum, University of Wyoming, and the Wyoming State Museum, among other public and private collections.
caption: The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which commissioned Jackson to create the sequential paintings The Stampede and The Range Burial in the 1960s, houses the largest museum collection of the artist's work in the United States.
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