The Fine Art Of Going Fast.

Passionate about cars, motorcycles and anything mechanical that started out well-made and has endured decades without ever being molested, Jeff is a product of the southern California hot-rod scene, his father, Allen’s, understudy. While Jeff didn’t inherit his dad’s mechanical skills, he did acquire the discriminating eye of an artist and the passion for historical significance. Indeed, it is each subject’s inherent blend of art and history that makes every Jeff Decker sculpture exceptional.

Yet it’s more than the motorcycle that makes Decker’s work so fascinating. As he tells it, “There is nothing that embodies the urgency of our age and the modern synergy of man and machine better than a motorcycle and its rider. It is a perfect marriage of mechanical and organic aspects of our world.” Decker seeks to capture the glory of the Golden Age of motorcycle racing. “These guys were every bit as colorful as Wild Bill Cody in the cowboy era. In fact, boardtrack racers played to bigger audiences than Babe Ruth. I am committed to giving them their due.” As you examine Decker’s work you see this commitment in the subject’s race face, their position on the bike, their grip on the bars and the detailed rendering of every valve tappet getting revved to its limit.

The research that Decker performs prior to creating each sculpture is a clear indication of his passion. Take, for example, the iconic “Flat Out at Bonneville” piece, where Rollie Free stretched his bathing-suit-clad body across his Vincent Black Lighting to ride 151.3 mph across the salt for the world record. The rider’s total commitment is clearly evident, but the historical accuracy of the sculpture came through exhaustive research.

“I uncovered a scrapbook that had been stored in the basement of the son of Rollie Free’s mechanic. With that archive I was able to trade with Herb Harris, Mike Parti and Jay Leno to assemble the largest source of reference on Rollie’s person. Jerry Hatfield, who was writing a book on Rollie, had to put off publishing for years because of the find. Thousands of documents and photos gave me the background I needed to sculpt. I also used his actual motorcycle, posing a model in the famous prone position to capture the image from all angles. Several details found during my research helped the restorer Herb Harris make his motorcycle more faithful to that famed day in 1948.”

This level of dedication caught the eye of Willie G. Davidson, who led the charge to name Decker as Harley-Davidson’s official sculptor. The most visible result of this recognition so far appears on the grounds of the H-D Museum in Milwaukee. Unveiled at the museum’s opening in 2008, this 16-foot-high, 5,000-pound monument to achievement is a life-plus-half-size 1930 DAH hill climber and rider that is considered Decker’s masterpiece.

Working from his own immaculately restored DAH—and within sight of the legendary Widowmaker hillclimb venue—Decker propped the bike in the position he wanted and had a model climb aboard, dressed with actual examples of the period’s helmets,
goggles and leathers. The dramatic pose came by looking though volumes of photos of early hillclimbers, where the guys who won reached the top while tossing the bike forward in a blaze of dust and glory. The sculpture came after more than a year
of sculpting, molding, casting, welding and patination.

From board and dirt track to speedway and road course, and to the back roads and byways in between, every sculpture’s goal is to capture the emotion of the moment for the rider and the machine depicted. In addition to his fine art pieces, Decker’s art is used for perpetual awards at the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), The Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA) and the Legends of the Motorcycle concours’ de elegance.

“The people who are collecting my artwork are passionate about motorcycling. But they also appreciate the work I put in. It takes months and sometimes years to make a piece and costs thousands of dollars just for the foundry work. Sure, the prices for my work aren’t small, but I love the look on peoples’ faces when they take ownership. And while I’m sensing a breakthrough in the fine arts world, I will always do this work for what it says about motoculture, especially in its historical sense.”
Rider, December 2009

www.jeffdeckerstudio.com