COCA-COLA ART OF JIM HARRISON

The collection in this book is divided between the seasons. Coca-Cola scenes in spring and summer include a covered wooden bridge with the Coca-Cola logo painted along its length. The interior of a country store in April boasts a Coca-Cola vending machine. A wooden auto-repair shack in the bright August sun announces "We fix flats" and underneath, "Bring Coca-Cola". In the winter some of the same scenes are depicted snowbound, with the bleakness of an empty barn in February relieved by the bright red of the advertising. Jim Harrison is renowned throughout the world for paintings of the American landscape that always include Coca-Cola signs. In 1952, in his home town of Denmark, South Carolina, Jim asked the local poster-painter, J. J. Cornforth, for a holiday job. Denmark had a Coca-Cola bottling plant and most of Cornforth's sign work was based on the company's advertising. As Jim's lettering skills and speed increased, he got other sign jobs, and at the same time he became interested in painting studies of Coca-Cola signs in the landscape. During Jim's college days he continued with his sign work and started his own shop, while at the same time pursuing his ambition to be head football coach at a high school. The time came when he had to choose between a career in art or joining the Furman University football staff. He chose art and headed to New York, gradually making a name for himself with paintings that seemed to capture the spirit of America. Eventually he became a licensee of the Coca-Cola Company, commissioned to create artworks featuring the brand. 103pp, over 70 colour reproductions.
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