The Coca-Cola Art of Jim Harrison

Jim Harrison

• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781611177268
• eBook ISBN: 9781611177275
• Topic: Kunst
• Subtopic: Kunst Allgemein

The story of how a summer job spawned a long and rewarding career as an artist

Coca-Cola is a true American original and one of the world's most recognized and popular American products. In The Coca-Cola Art of Jim Harrison, the artist traces his lifelong love affair with the Coca-Cola trademark that began during his childhood in rural South Carolina.

Harrison enjoyed drinking the sweet and effervescent beverage, but he also was attracted to the Coca-Cola trademark that was blazoned on buildings and signs in his home town. After years of marveling at the work of local sign painter J. J. Cornforth, Harrison approached the seventy-year-old for a summer job. During several summers Cornforth taught Harrison the craft. When the young artist climbed atop the scaffold in the summer of 1952 to paint his first Coca-Cola sign, little did he know that he was launching a career as one of America's foremost landscape artists.

In 1975 Harrison created a painting of a country store that featured a fading Coca-Cola sign he and Cornforth had painted twenty years earlier. The painting, titled "Disappearing America, " was offered as one of the first limited-edition Coca-Cola collector prints for $40 by Frame House Gallery. All 1, 500 copies sold out quickly, propelling him into the national spotlight through the publisher's network of 600 dealers. Harrison soon became the undisputed leader in rural Americana art, with this and many of his other prints appreciating up to 3, 000 percent of their original value.

Since entering into a licensee relationship with the Coca-Cola Company in 1995, Harrison has continued developing limited-edition prints, including his popular annual Coca-Cola calendar. Not surprisingly, Harrison has become an avid collector of old Coca-Cola signs. His studio is lined with a vast array of this collection, which serves as inspiration for new works of art.

The Flag and Coca-Cola

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 18 × 24 INCHES, 2002

No discussion of American business history can overlook the success of the Coca-Cola Company, the ultimate example of the American dream. No other corporation or product can match it. For almost a century, ice-cold Coca-Cola has been the universal thirst quencher and one of the world’s best-known American products. Coca-Cola’s trademark has been a favorite subject of mine throughout my life. I jokingly have said that I have worked for Coca-Cola for more than sixty years, most likely longer than any other employee there.

J. J. Cornforth

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 20 × 30 INCHES, 1975

Mr. Cornforth signed his signs J. J. Corn4th Signs.

Summer Coca-Cola Bridge

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 24 × 36 INCHES, 1995

I love covered bridges and visit one every chance I get. It certainly is like stepping into the past. Mr. Cornforth and I never painted a sign on one. I am not sure just how they employ scaffolding to reach and work on the side, but it has always fascinated me.

Coca-Cola Can with Daisies

ACRYLIC ON ILLUSTRATION BOARD, 12 × 16 INCHES, 1997

Even a rusted can becomes an object of beauty when struck by sunlight. The arrangement of light and shadow enhances the most insignificant of things.

Coca-Cola Calendar Cover 2015

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 12 × 16 INCHES, 2015

August 2000

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 12 × 16 INCHES, 1999

The Coca-Cola Company was a master at marketing. No small town was without the well-known symbol incorporated into the fabric of Main Street USA on its stores and businesses.

August 2002

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 12 × 16 INCHES, 1997

August 2003

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 14 × 18 INCHES, 2002

I love country stores. Not only are they rich with emotional associations. They are also an essential part of our past.

Bait, Fishing, and Tackle

ACRYLIC ON ILLUSTRATION BOARD, 11 × 14 INCHES, 1998

No fishing trip was complete without a Coca-Cola. Many a lazy afternoon could be spent stretched on the bank of a pond with your fishing pole in hand and an ice-cold Coke by your side.

Coca-Cola 5 Cent Bottles

ACRYLIC ON ILLUSTRATION BOARD, 15 × 30 INCHES, 2006

I have visited this store many times. An elderly Mr. Luther owned the little grocery business, and I think he mainly kept it open just to have something to do. It is near the river and is a gathering place for the fishermen. I have painted a number of versions of the building in different seasons. When CNN did a documentary of my work, they filmed some footage inside of the store.

Coca-Cola Barn 2008

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 12 × 16 INCHES, 2007

Slowly the buildings are giving in to the thousands of summer suns and the freezing winter rains. Nestled in the grassless sand or propped upon hard, bare ground, long-abandoned country stores stand under huge old shade trees, their faded sides visually pealing out, “DRINK COCA-COLA.”...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Artist
• My Coca-Cola Story
• The Paintings
• Index of the Paintings