Big Head by Harold Mabry

Off in the woods on the north side of highway 71 east of De Queen can be found this giant cement head poking out of the ground

The Big Head sculpture located near De Queen, Arkansas, was created by artist Harold Mabry in 1959. Although many people have referred to this massive, over 16 feet tall, concrete statue as the Easter Island Head; its artist always denied that there was any influence of native American or Easter Island influence in his sculpture. He also designed a feminine sculpture which would have mirrored the completed male head sculpture; however, the feminine head was never completed beyond a small sculptural maquette. He sometimes referred to the two heads as Male Head and Female Head. Mabry constructed the large concrete head by digging and then shaping a hole in the ground to form a rough mold. The surface of the clay rich soil was then detailed with plaster and the back and sides were defined with lumber. The steel chassis of a truck and other metal items were laid out to create a framework to reinforce the structure of the sculpture. Finally, a local contractor, John Jacobs, was hired to pour concrete into the mold. After being allowed to cure for two months, the sculpture was excavated with a bulldozer and the Big Head was raised upright where it rested on a concrete foundation that was poured at the same time as the head. Mabry then dabbed the sculpture with paint to simulate the look of natural stone. He also marked the head with “H. MABRY 1959”. The Big Head has continued to stand in a field near De Queen since it was lifted from the ground in 1959. It has not always been alone; the surrounding hillside was also home to another Mabry creation, Hurrah City, a three-quarter scale town representing the early settlement that would eventually become the city of De Queen, Arkansas. The small buildings included a saloon, store, barber shop, bank, railroad depot, and a newspaper office. Unfortunately, none of the mini-town’s buildings remain. Note: This sculpture is located on private land and is not easily accessible.

by Callie Williams

Big Head by Harold Mabry, De Queen, AR - 1959

Big Head Sculpture

After stumbling over the approximate location of a rarely documented and unique sculpture¹ in South West Arkansas, I tried to triangulate the position of the Big Head sculpture via vague hints and Google Maps and I was successful².

This massive cement head poking out of the ground can be found about a hundred yards away in the woods on the north side of Highway 71 east of De Queen. You can see it from the road, but there's a path that leads right up to it, beginning in the parking lot of the now-closed Slow Flea Market.

Mabry created his Big Head in 1959 for no apparent reason. He denied doing it for the technical challenge. He denied that Native American tribes or Easter Islanders had any influence. He only explained that he wanted to "convey a sense of massiveness through the use of planes and angles." The fact that it is SOLID REINFORCED CONCRETE also contributes to its massive appearance. The piece is advertised as being more than seventeen feet long, but the above-ground portion is only sixteen feet, six inches long. The work is commonly referred to as "Easter Island Head" in the literature, but Harold referred to it in print as "Big Head" or "Male Head," because a second (female) head was planned to be set at right angles to this one.

Several small models of the Seven-inch Prototypes of Harold Mabry's Sculpture pair of heads were made, and when seen together, it's clear that they weren't based on the heads on Easter Island. One could compared the female to the classic gray space alien of modern folklore, which was somewhat ahead of its time in 1959.

Harold Mabry worked as a sign painter. He had only a few classes at the local junior college for formal art training. As promotional giveaways for the Horatio State Bank, he illustrated several calendars and printed watercolors on local subjects. Some residents of De Queen agreed that Harold was an eccentric genius, but when asked for specific examples of eccentric behavior or evidence of genius, his neighbors provided none. I saw talent but not genius, and in Arkansas, eccentric could mean almost anything. According to Billy Ray McKelvy, editor of the De Queen Bee Daily Citizen, Harold's first comment to him at their first meeting was, "I ain't no damn genius." When I asked Steve about it, he said his father was not unusual. He didn't care whether or not people understood what he was doing, so he never took the time to explain himself to his neighbors. Ten people would probably get ten different answers if they asked him why he made The Big Giant Head.

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Big Head by Harold Mabry, De Queen, AR - 1959 The Big Head sculpture located near De Queen, Arkansas, was created by artist Harold Mabry in 1959. Although many people have referred to this massive, over 16 feet tall, concrete statue as the Easter...

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