Seley, Jason, 1919-

Sculptor. Studied with Ossip Zadkine in New York from 1943-1945 at the Art Students League. From 1947-1949, he sculpted and taught in Haiti at Le Centre d'Art. In 1950, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to France. while abroad, he traveled and saw the famous Andrea del Verrocchio COLLEONI, which influenced him in 1969-1971 to construct a replica made from automobile bumpers, his preferred medium. He taught at Hofstra, New York University and was the dean of the art school at Cornell until his death in 1983.

Jason Seley was born in 1919 in Newark, NJ. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornell in 1940. He studied in New York and Paris and taught at Hofstra University, New York University, the Ontario College of Art, Dartmouth College, and the Berliner Kunstlerprogram in Berlin. In 1968, he became a professor of sculpture at Cornell, and chaired the Department of Art for the next five years. In 1980, he became dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell, a position he held until his death in 1983. An internationally acclaimed sculptor, Seley was best known for his work with welded chromium-plated steel and, in particular, automobile bumpers. Numerous public and private collections included his work, and he had many one-man and group exhibitions.