1950 – 1959

On a visit to the Northwest in 1951, Jacques Lipchitz saw JLH’s student sculpture work when visiting during his retrospective exhibit at Portland Art Museum. Lipchitz gave JLH a private tour of his exhibition and invited him to be his assistant and study under him in New York. JLH, observing that, “nothing grows in the shade of a big tree,” declined the honor, knowing that his strength grew from this place, the Northwest, and its sustaining confluence of cultures. That following year, in 1952, JLH received the San Francisco Art Association National Annual first purchase award for The Huntress, bronze, as well as the Seattle Art Museum Northwest Annual first purchase award for The Call, bronze.

Max Weber, upon viewing young Hansen’s work at the Portland Art Museum Exhibition, remarked to painter Louis Bunce, “Now there is a young man who knows what sculpture is all about.” Hansen continues to know what sculpture is all about, and to answer his creative imperative with unwavering dedication. Hansen is the artist messenger, sometimes confounding himself with the mystical presence inhabiting his forms. The esthetic that evolves from Hansen’s essential inquiry is a distinct displacement of space by alert abstract forms that command our attention.

James Lee Hansen casting in his Burnt Bridge Studio, Vancouver,
early 1950s.

1950 – Completed building bronze foundry in studio from salvaged industrial materials.

1950 – Graduated from Portland Museum Art School.

1951 – Jacques Lipchitz saw Hansen’s student sculpture work when visiting during his retrospective exhibit at Portland Art Museum – gave him a private tour of his exhibition and invited him to be his assistant. JLH, observing that, “nothing grows in the shade of a big tree,” and not wanting to leave his new studio and move to the East coast, declined the invitation.

1951 – Artists of Oregon 1951, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1952 – Eight Oregon Artists, Kraushaar Galleries, New York NY.

1952 – 38th Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA.

1952 – Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Annual First Purchase Award for The Call, bronze, Seattle, WA.

1952 – 58th Annual Exhibition of Western Art, The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.

1952 – Artists of Oregon 1952, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1952 – 71st Annual Paintings and Sculptures Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA.

1952 – San Francisco Art Museum, San Francisco Art Association National First Purchase Award for The Huntress, bronze, San Francisco, CA.

1953 – 73rd Annual Paintings and Sculptures Exhibitions, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA.

1953 – National Exhibition of Paintings, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

1953 – Artists of Oregon 1953, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1954 – Artists of  Oregon 1954, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1954 – San Francisco Art Association, National Annual American Trust Company Award for Primal Dawn, San Francisco, CA.

1955 – 41st Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artist, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

1955 – Sculpture of the Pacific Northwest, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.

1956 – 42nd Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

1956 – Artists of Oregon 1956, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1956 – Columbia River Gorge Petroglyph Preservation Project

In 1956 James Lee Hansen was instrumental in making wax and linen molds of the many prehistoric petroglyph carvings in an area of the Columbia River Gorge that would be inundated by the Dalles and John Day Dams being constructed by the Army Corp of Engineers in the 1950’s. Some of these images were cast as facsimiles and gifted to the Oregon Museum of Science and History in Portland, Oregon. This project was instigated and started by Dr. Carl Heller and James Haseltine.

1957 – 43rd Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

1957 – Northwest Institute of Sculpture, Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

1957-1958 – Instructor in Sculpture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

1958 – 44th Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

1958 – Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Norman Davis Purchase Award for Neo Shang, bronze, Seattle, WA.

1958 – Artists of Oregon 1958, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1958 – Northwest Institute of Sculptors, 1958, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.

1958-1960 – Fine Arts Collaborative, architectural art and art in public places.

1958 – Instructor in Sculpture, University of California, Berkeley, CA (taught summer sessions).

1958 – Exhibit at ARTISTS GALLERY, Seattle, WA.

1958 – Initiated collaborative of fellow artists at his Burnt Bridge studio and contracted to do art work for the Oregon Centennial and large mural works for the Portland Sheraton Hotel and various NW churches.

1959 – 45th Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

1959 – Third Pacific Coast Biennial, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA.