James Gill (artist)

James Francis Gill (born 1934) is an acclaimed American artist and one of the protagonists in the pop-art movement.

Background and education

He was born in Tahoma, Texas and grew up in San Angelo. His mother, who dabbled as a painter, encouraged her son to have an artistic interst. When Gill was around 10 years old, his mother painted a wodden floor in the family home in the syle of Jackson Pollock. In high school, Gill and some frineds started a rodeo club to pursue their first dream of being cowboys. [1]

Career

Early Years and Pop

From 1957 to 1960, Gill served in the United States Marines. After leaving the Marines, he earned his living as a architect/illustrator. This was a curious beginning for an artist about to explode onto the pop art scene. In the summer of 1962, Gill traveled to Los Angeles with a series of paintings under his arm titled "Women in Cars." Upon his arrival in L.A., Gill walked in the Felix Landau Gallery (as renowned in L.A. as Leo Catelli Galllery in New York). Landau agreed to represent Gill on the spot, something he had never done before. By November, 1962 Gill had achieved international acclaim when his "Marilyn Tryptych (a 3-panel painting of Marilyn Monroe) was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art and featured in Life Magazine. Indeed, Gill's "Marilyn" study actually preceded Warhol's more famous study of the tragic screen legend.

Becoming an Icon

Throughout the fifties and sixties, a new school of artists emerged on the scene. They made “Pop Art” a household name. This group included Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Mark Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg and James Francis Gill. James Gill was one of the standouts among the pop artists. He experienced a rapid ascent in the art world, getting his work into major collections such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art and receiving commissions such as the cover of Time Magazine in 1968. Over the decade that followed, James Gill became an icon in the pop art world. Major museums that added his work to their collections included:

*Museum of Modern Art, New York -
*Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
*The Art Institute of Chicago
*Berkley Art Museum, University of California, Berkley
*Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
*Stanford University Cantor Center for Visual Arts,
*San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas
*Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Art, Santa Barbara, Ca

Honors

In 1968, Gill was included in the world-famous Sao Paulo 9 exhibit.

That single event, more than any other, established the hierarchy of the Pop Art icons. Among those included (in order of billing) were:

EDWARD HOPPERJAMES GILLROBERT INDIANAJASPER JOHNSROY LICHTENSTEINROBERT RAUSCHENBERGJAMES ROSENQUISTANDY WARHOLTIM WESSELMANN

His work is often included in the realm of Pop Art but, unlike his contemporaries, Gill’s art reflected qualities of a contemporary consciousness and a classical tradition as well.

In 2008, after re-emerging from a 35 year hiatus, Gill’s story caught the attention of Hollywood and a feature length documentary about him, hosted by Forrest Sawyer, is in production. The YouTube link below shows a 6-minute trailer of the full-length feature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFnG6S6VovQ