The Noble Kingdom

By Bonnie Gangelhoff

The first thing to know about artist Ezra Tucker is that he views his subjects as descendants of a grand nobility. They are proud, dignified and majestic in his eyes. But Tucker’s subjects don’t wear sumptuous satin gowns or drip diamond jewels. They do, on occasion, sport fur coats. His subjects are the foxes, bobcats, buffalo and bears that live in the animal kingdom. “I want my paintings to reflect the classical style of presenting wildlife in a natural state to reveal its natural behaviors and postures,” Tucker says. “I want my artworks to seem alive, animated and ready to step out of a two-dimensional world into a three-dimensional one.”

Indeed, the artist’s portrayals of creatures large and small can leave viewers standing in awe, marveling at the animal’s beauty and magnificence. Such is the case in recent paintings like AMERICAN NOBILITY and SNOW DAY. In SNOW DAY, for example, a stately mule deer stares out at a snow-covered terrain in the Rocky Mountains. A warm morning sun illuminates the scene. The buck wears a resplendent crown of antlers as he strikes a pose that says, “I’m king of the hill.”

SNOW DAY was on view in March at the Autry Museum’s Masters of the American West. In July, The Art of Ezra Tucker premieres at the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in Oradell, New Jersey. The exhibition eventually travels to 11 more museums across the country. The curator of the show, David J. Wagner, says Tucker brings something special to the world of animal art. Wagner explains, the artist imbues his subjects with heightened emotional appeal through his careful, thoughtful portrayal of the creatures’ attitudes and behaviors.

Tucker, a lifelong student of animal behavior, evokes the interactions and conflicts that arise in Mother Nature in his narrative paintings. “I often think of the animals as they try to survive in the wild, searching for nutrition,” he says.

For example, in BIRTH OF A LEGEND, a herd of bison faces off with a pack of threatening wolves that lurk nearby. The piece features the predators as they size up the weakest prey, a small white calf, while the older, stronger bulls flank the young one in protection. Here, Tucker says, he is capturing the tense moments before the wolves attack, essentially freezing the scene for viewers.

Tucker’s works are often layered with stories. In DEFENDING THE LEGEND, Tucker references not only a scene from nature, but also the centuries-old Native American legend of the white buffalo passed from generation to generation. The white calf is a rarity and when the calf is born, it is considered sacred among many nations.

In PROTECTING THE ROOKERY, Tucker captures another scene in the wild: a fox in repose. Again, the artist drops the viewer into a seemingly peaceful scene. “I’m imagining a fox in the weeds hunting for food,” Tucker says. “At some point the fox will crawl through the weeds. It’s the moment before the attack. I want the viewer to imagine what will happen next. I try to make the scene beautiful and let the viewer make up the story in their head.”

Through his creative use of lighting, composition, color and scale, the artist has a talent for evoking a certain beauty in his subjects that is reminiscent of the Old Masters. Tucker starts each piece with a solid drawing as his foundation. Then, using his vast experience and education, he creates the painting from his imagination. He is quick to point out he does not use photographic reference. Tucker describes his style as “imaginative realism” and adds that “The word that has been most inspiring to me from my youth is ‘imagine.’”

Tucker was born in 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee. As the son of a Pentecostal minister, a major part of his childhood was the church. So was drawing. Tucker recalls sitting in church services and illustrating scenes of the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark in the margins of his Bible.

One of six children in a working-class family, Tucker says he didn’t have many resources to pursue his artistic interests. However, his teachers recognized his talents early on. Tucker recalls a day in elementary school when a teacher read the class a story from Aesop’s Fables. The budding artist didn’t care for the book’s illustrations and created his own versions. When the teacher saw his artwork, she was amazed and declared to the class that Tucker’s drawings surely were better than the ones in the book.

If Tucker had to single out one of the most important influences on his future career, it may have been the 24-volume set of the World Book Encyclopedia that his parents purchased when he was 10 years old. World Book’s treasure trove of information and illustrations fed his imagination from the first day, and he would subsequently spend hundreds of hours copying paintings, drawings, maps and photographs from the pages of the volumes.

By the time Tucker was in high school, his reputation as an artist preceded him. He was frequently asked to design and create theater stage sets, athletic posters and banners. When it came time for college, Tucker’s father discouraged him from pursuing an art education and instead wanted him to concentrate on the Bible and becoming a good citizen.

Tucker admired his father but was undeterred. After high school, he enrolled in Memphis State Art College where he earned a degree in fine art, graduating with honors. The day after graduation, he boarded a plane for Kansas City, Missouri, for a new job as an artist for Hallmark Cards. “Working at Hallmark was equivalent to a graduate course in art,” Tucker says. “We painted every day, painting after painting.”

Although he valued the experience, after five years it was time to move on from cute, fluffy Easter bunnies to Godzilla, Marmaduke and Babe. The film industry beckoned.

In 1983 Tucker moved to Los Angeles, found an agent and set about building a career as a freelance illustrator. Eventually his artwork was in high demand. It appeared on movie posters, in theaters, on book covers and in advertisements for films in national magazines. Prominent names in the business such as Universal Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Lucasfilm were among his clients. By the end of his time in Los Angeles, Tucker had also amassed an extensive client roster of major corporations outside the film industry, including Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Levi Strauss.

In 1999, Tucker moved to a small town not far from Colorado Springs, Colorado, turning his attention from illustration to fine art. Although, Tucker acknowledges, the line between the two can be a blurry one. “I began my professional art career by aggressively pursuing any opportunity to create artwork of animals or imaginary creatures that resonated with me,” he says. “The challenge I set myself was to make iconic wildlife art like that of classical wildlife artist such as Bob Kuhn and Carl Rungius.”

These days, alongside his wildlife art, Tucker is exploring new subject matter: the Black experience in the history of the American West. Recent works feature Black cowboys, bronco busters and the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. “It’s a subject that has laid dormant but always interested me,” he says.

As this story was going to press, Tucker had just returned home from Los Angeles and the Masters of the American West, where he won a prize for his work. The next day he was back in his Colorado studio and hard at work creating paintings for several more prestigious museum shows unfolding later this year, including the Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis and Visions West at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.

In his studio, Tucker toils amid a treasured collection of books that speak to his wide range of interests beyond art, such as science, history, folklore and archeology. Buried somewhere in the floor-to-ceiling library is a tattered World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 2—a sentimental reminder of how it all began. “After 60 years of effort, I am still committed to making the visions of my imagination a reality,” Tucker says. “My journey is far from over.”

Bonnie Gangelhoff is a Colorado-based writer and former senior editor of Southwest Art. 

This story appeared in the June/July 2023 issue of Southwest Art magazine.

contact informationwww.ezratucker.com

representationBroadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, CO, www.broadmoorgalleries.com;Western Stars Gallery & Studio, Lyons, CO, www.westernstarsgallery.com;Wild Horse Gallery, Steamboat Springs, CO, www.wildhorsegallery.com;Courtney Collins Fine Art, Big Sky, MT, www.courtneycollinsfineart.com;Santa Fe Trails Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM, www.santafetrailsfineart.com;Red Piano Art Gallery, Bluffton, SC, www.redpianoartgallery.com;Gallery 330, Fredericksburg, TX, www.gallery330.com;Paderewski Fine Art & Sportsman’s Gallery, Nashville, TN, www.sportsmansgallery.com;Trailside Galleries, www.trailsidegalleries.com

upcoming showsQuest for the West Art Show and Sale, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN, September 8-October 8.Western Visions, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY, September 14-October 1.

The Art of Ezra Tucker. A traveling museum exhibition featuring works by renowned painter Ezra Tucker produced by David J. Wagner LLC with Wagner serving as curator and tour director.

Hiram Blauvelt Art MuseumOradell, NJJuly 1-August 31, 2023

Peggy Notebaert Nature MuseumChicago Academy of ScienceChicago, ILOctober 1, 2023-February 21, 2024

Grants Pass Museum of ArtGrants Pass, ORMarch 16–May 11, 2024

The Haggin MuseumStockton, CAJune 1-August 31, 2024

Sternberg Museum of Natural HistoryFort Hays State UniversityHays, KSSeptember 21-December 31, 2024

The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine ArtsHouston, TXJanuary 23-March 23, 2025

The Nicolaysen Art MuseumCasper, WYApril 11-May 28, 2025

The Museum of North IdahoCoeur d’Alene, IDJune 14–September 7, 2025

Turtle BayRedding, CAOctober 1–December 31, 2025

Brookgreen GardensMurrells Inlet, SCJanuary 24–April 19, 2026

Fort Wayne Museum of ArtFort Wayne, INMay 2–June 28, 2026

San Angelo Museum of Fine ArtsSan Angelo, TXJuly 18–September 27, 2026

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