Harry’s work in bronze captured the mystical spirit inherent in the alchemical history of metallurgy. Led by an obsession and reverence for the natural world, Harry expressed his intimate views of human beings’ relationship with the environment through an unmatched ability to replicate organic forms ranging from the human figure, root systems, flowers, animals, and even the surface of flowing water. Harry’s technical mastery allowed him to innovate with paper-casting and painting techniques that held viewers in awe for their delicately crafted details. His work evoked the surrealism of dreams and memory, as he wrote in 2016:
In my college years, I would go hiking in the Rockies early in the morning, and get to the meadows at the first light of day. I can close my eyes even today and still smell the air filled with the growth of those meadows. Much of my art has been about these little moments.
Harry Geffert was born in Live Oak County, Texas in 1934. He received his Bachelor of Science from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and his Master of Arts from New Mexico Highlands University in 1961. He spearheaded the Sculpture Department at Texas Christian University in 1962 where taught for twenty-seven years. In 1980, he established The Green Mountain Foundry where his guidance and knowledge was sought after by artists Frances Bagley, Clyde Connell, Joseph Havel, Lucas Johnson, Ken Little, Linda Ridgway, James Surls, Vernon Fisher and Virgil Grotfeldt among countless others. He was awarded the Mitchell W. Wilder Merit Citation for Excellence in Publication and Media Design in 1983 for a video installation on a bronze casting in collaboration with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. Harry went on to receive a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990, and in that same year, presented a solo exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art. He was bestowed with a Legend Award from The Dallas Visual Arts Center in 1998. In 1999, Geffert closed the foundry to focus solely on his own artistic interests.
[excerpted from Cris Worley Fine Arts website: www.crisworley.com]