A bronze statue of the Penney’s store founder James Cash Penney greets visitors as they enter the triangle of downtown Kemmerer.  It stands on the corner of the triangle across from the “mother” Penney’s store and the small home where J.C. Penney resided which is now a historical site.

The bronze statue was created by world-renowned sculptor Greg Wyatt, who resides in New York City, New York.  In 1987, JC Penney company board of trustees’ vice president Chris Sears and board chairman William Howell commissioned Wyatt to do the bronze statue of Penney to be exhibited at the JC Penney headquarters in Plano, Texas.

“I have never been to Kemmerer,” Wyatt said. “Chris Sears gave me books on J.C. Penney with pictures of him and the store.  I also created a relief of the Kemmerer store and made a two-sided medallion with the flame of freedom on one side and the Kemmerer mother store on the other for the Penney company.”

Recently, the JC Penney Company’s board of trustees decided it was more appropriate to have the statue displayed near the first JC Penney store so it was moved to Kemmerer.

Many people are familiar with the story of JC Penney and his founding of the famous department store in the small town of Kemmerer, but many Wyomingites know little or nothing about the famous sculptor who created the beautiful lifelike statue of their pioneer businessman. 

Wyatt is an American representational sculptor who works primarily in bronze. He was born in Nyack, New York, and raised in Grand View-on-Hudson, New York. He was nurtured in the artistic tradition of his native Hudson River Valley at an early age by his father, Professor William Stanley Wyatt, painter and fine arts professor at Columbia University and City College of the City University of New York.

Greg Wyatt received his Bachelor of Arts degree in art history at Columbia College in 1971 and studied classical sculpture for three years at the National Academy of Design’s School of Fine Arts under sculptor Evangelos Frudakis, N.A.  Wyatt earned his Masters of Arts degree at Columbia University Teachers College in ceramic arts in 1974 and in 1976 he completed his coursework towardsa doctorate in art education. Wyatt has taught at New York University and at Jersey City State College. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the American College of the Mediterranean in Aiz-en-Provence, France.

Wyatt bases his work on the philosophy of “spiritual realism,” merging realistic images and abstract masses of form, space and energy. Professor Stanley Wells, a renowned Shakespearian scholar and emeritus chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, says, “I compare Wyatt to Rodin. He’s that good. Wyatt emulates the sculpture of the western world with contemporary vision.” (Wikipedia – Greg Wyatt)

His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, among other institutions and collections and can be seen in more than twenty public spaces in cities from New York, NY, to Beijing, China.

The following are just a few of Wyatt’s works: a twelve-foot-high bronze WWII memorial, The Price of Freedom (2010), permanently placed at the Arlington National Cemetery visitors center in Virginia. Permanently placed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the bronze model of The Price of Freedom (2003).  Other works include: Soaring American Eagle (2000) at North courtyard of Harry S. Truman Building, U.S. Dept. of State, Washington, DC; the Peace Fountain (1985) at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, NYC; the Tempest (2000), Hamlet (2001), King Lear (2002), Julius Caesar (2003), and A Midsummer’s Night Dream (2005) at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK; Scholars’ Lion and Volcanus at the Comune di Poppi-Castello dei Conti Guidi, Arezzo, Italy; Two Rivers at Museo Deli’Opera del Duomo di Pisa, Pisa, Italy; and Socrates Equus Urns at Musei dei Civici with Giotto’s Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padova, Italy. 

Kemmerer and the state of Wyoming are now on the display map of the celebrated works of a world famous and highly respected sculptor, Greg Wyatt.

Wyatt said, “I am planning on donating a small bronze model of the Penney statue to the Kemmerer Museum; I just need to know who to get hold of there.”