Harrison Covington, The Aviator, an eight-foot bronze, Tampa International Airport
Harrison Covington was born in Plant City in 1924. After service as a fighter pilot in the Pacific in World War II, he entered the University of Florida as an art student in 1945, graduating with a BFA with honors in 1949, and a MA in 1953. After graduation he worked as director of the University’s Tarpon Springs Summer Art School. From 1949 to 1961 Covington was associate professor of art at the University of Florida.
In 1955 Covington was honored with inclusion in the Ringling Museum Exhibit, Fifty Florida Painters. Covington participated in exhibitions throughout the country, among them the 1954, Southeastern Annual in Atlanta, and in 1956 and 1958, the 18th and 20th Annual Exhibitions of Contemporary American Paintings. Covington was commissioned to paint the official portrait of Florida Governor Charley E. Johns which hangs in the Florida state capital.
In September 1961 he was appointed founding chairman of the Department of Art at the University of South Florida, serving in that capacity from 1961 to 1967. In 1963 Covington received a commission to paint a series of six murals for the Tampa Courthouse and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Grant in Aid, which enabled him to tour European museums. From 1967 to 1971 he served as the Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Director of the Division of Fine Arts bringing the Division to full college status. He then served as full Professor of Art until returning as Dean of the College of Fine Arts in 1977, serving in that capacity through 1982.
Harrison Covington, Figures in Landscape, a collage and oil on canvas,46 by 48 inches, signed lower left.
Covington’s paintings were largely abstract. In 1961, his painting, Figure in Landscape, was one of 100 out of some 9,000 paintings submitted, chosen by New York’s Museum of Modern Art for inclusion in their exhibit, Recent Painting USA: The Figure.
Harrison Covington, Confrontation, collage, mixed media on canvas, 63 by 48 inches, signed lower right. Titled verso.
Harrison Covington, The Firefighter, an 8-foot-high silicon bronze. Fire Rescue Station 28, Sun City.
Late in life Covington’s work took a more realistic bent when he took up sculpture. His eight-foot bronze statue of an early American aviator, The Barnstormer, commissioned for Tampa International Airport, is viewed by the thousands of passengers who pass daily. Other Covington public sculptures are at the International Shrine Headquarters in Tampa and Shriners Hospitals nationwide. In a more modern style, his Concentric Figures, 1996, stands on the University of South Florida campus, in Simmons Park. His eight-foot bronze, The Firefighter, commissioned by Hillsborough County, is at Fire Rescue Station 28, Sun City.
Harrison Covington, Concentric Figures, University of South Florida, Simmons Park.
Born: April 12, 1924, Plant City, Florida. Died: April 24, 2021, Tampa. Education: New York City with Carl Holty; Fletcher Martin; University of Florida, BA, 1949, MFA, 1953. Membership: Florida Federation of Art; Gainesville Association of Fine Arts; Florida Artist Group. Exhibits: Florida Federation of Art, annual circuits, 1949, 1950 award pictorial design, Composition, 1951, 1952; Florida Artist Group, annual traveling exhibits, 1949, 1950, 1951; Florida Federation of Art, 1950, 1st prize, abstraction; Florida Federation of Art, grand prize, 1951; Florida State Fair, Tampa, 1951, 2nd prize; Florida Artist Group, 2nd Annual National Circuit, shown under auspices of the art department, University of Florida, May 1951 to April 1952, Still Life; Florida State Fair, February 1952; Gainesville Association of Fine Arts, February 1952; Southeastern Regional Invitation Exhibit, August 1952, Woman’s College, University of North Carolina; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, October 1952, University of Florida Faculty Exhibit, Bleeker-Green Street; Gainesville Association of Fine Arts, April 1953; University of Florida, summer art school faculty, Hotel Villa Plumosa, Tarpon Springs, June 15 to July 15, 1953; Florida House, South Dale Mabry, Tampa, August 1953 one man show; University of Florida, Student Service Center, one man show, March 1953; Society of The Four Arts Annual Exhibition, December 1955; Ringling Museum of Art, exhibit, Fifty Florida Painters, polyvinyl acetate and oil, Politician; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1956, oils, No. 2, November 1956, No. 7, October, 1956; Florida State Fair, Fine Arts Exhibit, January 29-February 9, 1957, Bridges; Tampa Art Institute, University of Florida faculty exhibit, paintings, prints, sculpture, October 1957; Florida State Fair, Tampa, 1958, Lykes Brothers, purchase prize, November 57; Florida Federation of Art, 32nd Annual Exhibition, November 13-28, 1958, Daytona Beach, oil, October 1958; Society of The Four Arts, 20th Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1958, oil, November 1958; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1959, Tampa Chamber of Commerce Purchase Award, Best Painting Depicting Industry in Florida, Architecture No. 3; Society of The Four Arts, 21st Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1959, Channing Hare Award, collage, Standing Man No.4; Governor’s All Florida Art Show, Ringling Museum, January 9-February 2, 1960, collage, Waiting, Search; Sarasota Art Association, annual, April 1960, Ringling Museum, Figure in Landscape; Society of The Four Arts, 22nd Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1960, James Cameron Clark Award, collage, Man in Landscape; Florida State Fair, 1962, prize Man Against Red; Florida Artist Group, Thirteenth Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1962-63, collage, Figures; Jacksonville Art Museum, 1963; Krasner Gallery, 1963; Florida State University, 1st Annual Symposium, Tallahassee, 1966, Five Florida Artists, mixed media, Turning Man; The Artists Alliance Gallery, Hyde Park, July 1981, retrospective exhibit.
