Jerry Jordan acquires early works
New Mexico painter Jerry Jordan had a rather unique “sold” experience recently in Texas involving his own work. It begins shortly after Jordan and his family quartet of singers stopped touring in the 1970s.
Here’s Jordan: “I was on the road singing with my family up until 1978, but then we quit touring and I went back to painting. I had a couple from Nebraska who wanted a painting. They asked how much and I told them $100. They asked I paint them an aspen scene, so I did it. I painted a work called Green Cathedral. When it was done, they drove from Nebraska to my home in Brownfield, Texas. I think they were expecting yellow trees, and these were green. They told me, ‘It’s awfully dark.’ They really wanted yellow trees and I can’t remember if I eventually did it for them. But I do remember I took Green Cathedral to the bank and asked if they would loan me the money to make prints of the piece. They looked at the painting and asked how much. I told them $1,200 and they said, ‘We’ll take that.’ And they also loaned me the money to make the prints.”
The bank went on to buy four additional paintings, all of which hung in the lobby starting in the late 1970s. During a recent trip through Texas, Jordan dropped by the bank to discover the paintings were not on display for the first time in more than 40 years.
“It was the Brownfield State Bank, but it was now called something else,” Jordan says. “I asked why they weren’t hanging, and they told me a new designer had just redone the interior and he didn’t want the paintings up anymore. I asked who I had to speak to about buying those paintings. This woman comes back to tell me, ‘We’ll most likely re-donate them back to you.’ And that’s exactly what they did. They held them for me, and three weeks ago I got them all back, including Green Cathedral.”
Jordan plans on keeping the five pieces—two landscapes and three bird paintings—and eventually hopes to loan them out to exhibitions about his work and career. They are presently on view in his studio in Taos, New Mexico. —
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Send us your Sold! stories by emailing Michael Clawson at mclawson@westernartcollector.com
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