Zajac Unbound: Revisting the Early Figurative Series
By Kim Carpenter
It has been close to half a century since Jack Zajac first produced his series of bound goats, ram skulls, and crucified Christs, yet these sculptures remain just as arresting now as when they first debuted. With themes as timeless as life, death, and sacrifice, even the sculptor himself has been repeatedly drawn back to these early works, turning to them for renewed inspiration and personal introspection. Zajac initially traveled to Rome in the early 1950s to study painting as a recipient of a Prix de Rome fellowship, but, he remembers: ÒClay was lying around in the studio, and I just picked it up.Ó During that time, pastures dotted with goat and sheep herds still surrounded Rome, and Zajac was irresistibly drawn to the bucolic subject matter.
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