Joe Halko (Montana 1940-2009) Bison / Buffalo bronze sculpture Sold Out Estate

  

This bronze is 13 in height and is the perfect size for an office credenza, a fireplace mantle or a coffee table. This bronze is number 27 of an edition of 36.

Joe's works are in major collections around the country, including several museums. Joe Halko grew up a student of nature of a ranch south of Great Falls, Montana. He learned the habits of the fox and the skunk, the crafty ways of the crows who nested in the same tree year after year, and whether the storm clouds held precious rain or dreaded hail. He built toy trucks and tractors out of leftovers from his father's shop and sculpted with clay out of the creek bank using ranch animals as models. He learned the basics of taxidermy from an uncle and so began his serious study of the anatomy of game birds and animals.

Halko's first formal art education was Art Instruction, Inc. Of Minneapolis, a correspondence course. After graduating from high school, he worked as a taxidermist in Great Falls and studied art at the University of Great Falls before he was drafted into the US Army. With that commitment complete, he took the train to New York to study art at the Fisk Studios and to work as a commercial artist for a Long Island advertising agency. He spent his free time there at the Museum of Natural History sketching the taxidermy mounts and the backgrounds.

The school, work and big city museums were new and rewarding experiences, but the busy city was not where he wanted to be. Through all of this Halko had been studying painting and sculpting, and spending as much time as possible in the out of doors.

As it turns out the taxidermy and the biology degree were solid preparations for Joe's career as a wildlife sculptor. His first serious sculptures were done as aids for painting - to study shadows, dimensions, and foreshortening. As he did more of these sculptures he found that he really enjoyed the sculpting, and it came easily for him. He continued his day work as a sought-after taxidermist doing sculpting on the side until 1976, when he turned to sculpting as his full-time occupation. He has been fortunate to have lived in Montana all of his life.

He married Margaret also a Montana native in 1969, and they have two daughters who are now grown. There were many opportunities along the way to move to bigger cities and larger markets, to travel and participate in the so-called big time shows, but Halko wanted to live and to raise his family in the environment they all loved. They spent 17 years south of Cascade along the Missouri River where wildlife and bird life was abundant and much studied. In 1998 Joe and Margaret moved to Choteau, another beautiful spot in Montana.

It is a picturesque Montana town along the east front of the Rocky Mountains with easy access to the rugged wilderness and numerous wildlife preserves. Primarily wildlife sculptor, to a lesser degree wildlife and landscape painting and western- theme sculpture. Did traditional head mounts and rugs as well as life-size mounts.

In addition to customer taxidermy projects, designed and built a 200 foot diorama with Montana wildlife taxidermy mounts, background landscape painting and fabricated foregrounds in the Great Falls Sporting Goods store 820 Central Ave. Monitored air and chemical quality at the smelter and surrounding area. 1965 Advertising Agency, Long Island NY.

Worked on window displays for various area retail businesses. Centerville High School, Montana 1958. Correspondence course from Minneapolis MN. Fisk Studios, New York 1965. Bachelor of Science with majors in Biology and Chemistry, University of Great Falls, Great Falls MT 1970. Scottsdale Artist's School, Arizona Painting workshops with David Leffel.

Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT Painting workshop with Richard Schmid. Steve Seltzer Studio Painting workshop with Steve Seltzer.

Collected and studied personal library of several hundred books on art history, artists, and animals. Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year Great Falls 1978.

Montana State Fair Collection 1979. Canadian Classic Art Association Best US Sculpture 1980 & 1981.

Northwest Rendezvous Group'Award of Merit' 1979, 1981 & 1991. St Peter's Gala, Helena, Artist Award 1995 & 1997. Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, Wausau WI permanent collection. CM Russell Museum, Great Falls One-man exhibit of sculpture and drawings 1982. CM Russell Museum, Great Falls MT Permanent collection. CM Russell Museum Great Falls MT Nature's People: Wildlife Sculpture Exhibition 1996. CM Russell Museum, Great Falls Focus on Four 1998. Shadows of the Past Art Show Choteau MT Featured artist 1999.

Feature article Southwest Art 1988. Feature Article Art of the West 1980. Great Falls Tribune Feature stories 2/22/81, 5/12/85, 8/13/2002.

Choteau Acantha feature story 11/18/98, 10/9/02. Century in the Foothills illustrator 1976. 2004 Commission for Central Montana Veteran's Memorial, Lewistown MT Six foot figure of WW II Army Nurse to be installed August. To be installed in November 2004, a 6-foot figure of a Vietnam era Navy seaman.

2004 Commission for a client of DeMott Gallery, Vail 9 foot tall bronze sculpture of a grizzly bear sow and her 3 cubs. To be installed October 2004. 2003 Commission for Regis University, Denver CO Life-size sculpture of a Flathead Indian and his pony and Father Pierre John DeSmet. 2002 Commission for Art in Public Places, Bend OR Life size sculptures of mule deer buck, doe and fawn. 2002 Commission for Regis University, Denver CO 6' x 8' relief sculpture of St Regis and the Street People. 2000 Commission for Mercer Island, WA Parks & Recreation Department - Life-size Peruvian Paso colt.

1998 Commissioned by Tom Tracy CEO of Ford Remanufactured Parts to complete two sculptures of Ireland's hero Kevin Barry to present to the Prime Minister of Ireland Bertie Ahern, the President of Ireland Mary McAleese, and to the school and the family of Kevin Barry. 1994 Commissioned to design and execute "Return of the Wild Geese", a bronze sculpture of flying geese, to present to the National Gallery of Ireland. 1988 Montana FWP Region 4 Headquarters Percent for Arts Project - Twice life-size sculpture of 4 Canada geese. Western Rendezvous of Art (NWR show), Helena MT since its inception in 1978 - Elected to membership in 1980.

Loveland CO Sculpture Invitational Show until 2001. Society of Animal Artists annual juried show -various years. The majority of Joe's exhibits and sales are through the galleries listed elsewhere.

Society of Animal Artists, New York. Northwest Rendezvous Group, Helena MT. Allied Artists of America, New York. This biography, taken from interviews with the artist's wife, Margaret, was submitted July 2004 by a researcher at the Ashworth Collection of Native American and Western Art.

Halko joins an elite group of western artists from Montana such as Bob Scriver, Charles M. Seltzer, Edgar Paxson, Joseph Henry Sharp, Ralph Earl DeCamp and many others who documented the wildlife, the cowboy culture and Indian life of the great Rocky Mountain region. Joe passed away in 2009. The item "Joe Halko (Montana 1940-2009) Bison / Buffalo bronze sculpture Sold Out Estate" is in sale since Friday, September 20, 2019. This item is in the category "Art\Art Sculptures".

" and is located in Littleton, Colorado. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, South africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Viet nam, Uruguay.

• Medium: Bronze
• Originality: Original