Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

A Salute To James Bama

May 6, 2022, by JimC

“In a violent and often irrational world perhaps my paintings can bring a moment of pleasure – of values that can be understood by many people and even rub off on a few aspiring artists. What more can I ask for or expect to attain in my own lifetime? After that, my fate and reputation will be in the hands of curators, collectors, dealers, critics and historians or, perhaps, junk dealers. This is out of my hands and I cannot dwell on it. So let my belief in hard work, older people, and virtues that are perhaps vanishing forever be my message for those who care to stop a while and look.”

— James Bama

*

I’m a little late in marking the passing of one of the true giants of Western Frontier Art. James Bama died in Wyoming last month at the age of 95.

Back in those formative years when I was first reading The Frontiersmen, and Mountain Man, The Big Sky and  Give Your Heart To The Hawks, I owned a copy of The Western Art of James Bama. I surely did stop a while and look.

The realist paintings of Mountain Men, cowboys, Indians became part of the landscape of the imagination that I was constructing then, and which I have never left. I like to  think I absorbed some of those vanishing  virtues that Bama sought to capture, and in gratitude and appreciation, I tip my hat to a master gone up the long trail.

 

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Comments

  1. Matthew says

    May 6, 2022 at 9:12 am

    I know Bama mostly from his covers of Doc Savage novels, but I think his real forte is Western Art. It’s a shame that he (and Neal Adams) died recently.

    We used to have a great museum of Western Art here in Colorado, but the owner died and his heirs sold of the collection. Another tragedy.

    Reply
  2. deuce says

    May 7, 2022 at 2:03 pm

    Bama started in the pulps, made the move to Men’s Adventure, went on to paint classic Doc Savage covers (where I discovered him) and created a whole new career in Western art. From Doc Savage to Doc Holliday (more or less).

    John Myers Myers followed a similar (literary) trajectory.

    Reply
  3. Matthew says

    May 8, 2022 at 3:17 pm

    Pretty short article on Myths of WWI here on Sofrep

    https://sofrep.com/news/some-myths-of-wwi-debunked/

    Reply
  4. lane batot says

    May 10, 2022 at 10:00 am

    WOW! Just EXCELLENT paintings!

    Reply
  5. Patti Jo Beal says

    May 10, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    I did not know he passed, I have appreciated his work for years. Another legend lost.

    Reply
  6. Bob Deis says

    May 11, 2022 at 8:19 am

    Before James Bama became famous for his great Western artwork and even before he did his popular Doc Savage paperback covers, he created cool cover and interior illustrations for men’s adventure magazines published in the 1950s and 1960s. I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Jim about his MAM artwork a while back for a series of posts on my MensPulpMags.com blog. For those who may be interested, here’s a link to the interview-> https://www.menspulpmags.com/an-interview-with-artist-james-bama-part-1/

    Reply
    • JimC says

      May 11, 2022 at 8:22 am

      Fantastic. Thank you for sharing this.

      Reply

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