Biography

Jac T Bowen's unusual given name was an anagram of the initials of his mother's brothers, James, Arthur, Charles and Tom. His middle name was simple "T", for Tom. Bowen studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute. He supported himself at the time by working as a commercial photographer and creating displays for local stores. He won second place in a national competition for a portrait of Marian Anderson with his work "Glory Road". This effort won him a commission for a mural at the Higginsville, Missouri Post Office in 1942. His reputation grew throughout the mid-West over the next decade. In 1957 he studied with Arnold Blanch in Woodstock, New York at a summer session of the Art Students League of New York. Later in that year he commenced a 6-month tour of Europe. Back in Kansas City, he undertook work in a variety of media, including steel sculpture and mosaics. Over time he became a beloved figure in Kansas City for the whimsical animal sculptures he produced for local shopping malls.

Critical Analysis

Bowen displayed a broad range of talents in the course of his career. His paintings show considerable skill, as do his mosaics and sculptures in steel. Bowen's fiberglass mall sculptures were of a more ephemeral nature, most of them having deteriorated and been removed.

Murals

• Higginsville, Missouri - Post Office: Industrial Activity in the City

References

1. The Beginning (Stew Art).
2. Birds in Flight (Zahner: Works).
3. Marybeth Lake, Jac T. Bowen, Kansas City Artist. Blurb , San Francisco, CA (2010).
4. Public Art of the WAP (Decades of America, America in the 1930's: WPA Art).
5. Salvatore Grisafe Memorial, The City of Fountains Foundation December 20 (2016).
6. Laura Spencer, Julie Denesha, You Can Buy The Kansas City Board Of Trade Building, And Its Art, KCUR 89.3 June 18 (2013).