James Bama (1926-2022)

James Bama (1926-2022) was a native New Yorker whose career began as a successful commercial artist and ended as a renowned Western artist, known for his photo-realistic paintings of subjects that captured “the old west.” In regards to his painting of Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy, Bama claimed to not only have been inspired by Newman’s character as an embodiment of the Western frontier: persevering, resourceful, and continually optimistic in the presence of danger, but equally impressed by how that character served as a heroic mascot for Newman’s charity, The Hole in the Wall Gang, aiding children battling cancer and other serious blood diseases. Today, several of James Bama’s works hang in the Denver Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Museum, and the Smithsonian amongst other prominent institutions.