Page 219 - 2020 Russell Catalogue

In Memoriam
Jay Joseph Contway 1935–2019
C.M. Russell Skull Society of Artists
Jay Joseph Contway was born February 13, 1935, in Malta, Montana. He was divinely blessed with a God-given talent for Western art. He painted in watercolor and oil, but as we all know, his greatest gift was his ability to sculpt in clay and cast in bronze. No one made a better cow horse than Jay Contway. His attention to detail and action made him one of the best cowboy sculptors ever known.
He was educated in Malta, graduating from high school in 1953. He took a job that summer with an oil crew in Oklahoma, thus beginning a life
of constant travel and education. Jay later obtained a teaching certificate from Northern Montana College in Havre, and took his first teaching position in Loring in 1955. He taught in Lodge Pole, Dupuyer, New Miami Hutterite Colony, Cut Bank, and Great Falls. When the school
year ended, so did the paychecks, so Jay went to work in the arena, calf roping during the summer rodeo season. He won the North Central Montana Rodeo Association calf roping championship in 1964, 1965, and 1966, and filled his Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association permit.
When the art began to sell, Jay retired from teaching. He bought his property west of Great Falls in the spring of 1967 by selling a rope horse to J.O. Anderson to make the down payment. Eventually Jay was able to build his own foundry, thus controlling the entire process of his work from clay to casting. He closed his foundry at the age of 77, when his legs no longer had the strength to lift a crucible filled with boiling metal. His one constant was Shirley Turner, who helped him operate his foundry for 39 years. Her contribution to his art production was as important as his own. Jay moved his casting to Montana foundries and the work went on, but for Jay, it was never as much fun as when he had complete command.
The Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, contributed to Jay’s worldwide recognition. For 31consecutive years, the rodeo committee gave a Jay Contway bronze as part of their trophy program, allowing the provision of over 160 pieces of art for the stampede.
Jay’s travels took him through the western United States and Canada, Mexico, the islands of the Bahamas, and among the
art galleries of Europe. The art in Paris was outstanding, but it was a small museum in Madrid that provided Jay the greatest inspiration of all. It was here that he saw the beginning of the Bronze Age. No explanation was necessary. Jay understood what he was looking at.
Over the years, Jay won numerous awards, but the most important recognitions of his career were the inductions into the Calgary Stampede Western Art Show Hall of Fame in 2009, the C.M. Russell Museum Skull Society of Artists 2014 and 2015, the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in 2015, and the Montana Pro-Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame in 2016. His final salute came in September 2019, when he received the Saddle of Honor Award from the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and the C.M. Russell Museum.