James Brooks (painter)

Infobox Artist
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name = James Brooks


imagesize = 300px
caption = "Boon," oil on canvas, 1957, Tate Gallery
birthname =
birthdate = 1906
location = St. Louis, Mo.
deathdate = 1992 (age 86)
deathplace = Brookhaven, New York
nationality = American
field = Abstract painting
training =
movement = Abstract Expressionism, Action painting, Lyrical Abstraction
works =
patrons =
influenced by =
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Biography

James Brooks (October 18, 1906 – March 9, 1992) was an American muralist, abstract painter and winner of the Logan Medal of the Arts. Brooks was a friend of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner on Eastern Long Island. In 1947 he married artist Charlotte Park. Considered a first generation abstract expressionist painter, Brooks was amongst the first abstract expressionists to use staining as an important technique. According to Carter Ratcliff [Art International, February, 1973. pp 38-39] "His concern has always been to create painterly "accidents" of the kind that allow buried personal meanings to take on visibility." In his paintings from the late 1940s Brooks began to dilute his oil paint in order to stain the mostly raw canvas. These works often combined calligraphy and abstract shapes. Brooks had his first one-man exhibition of his abstract expressionist paintings in 1949 at the Peridot Gallery in New York. The Courtauld Institute of Art (London), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas), the Harvard University Art Museums, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Indianapolis, Indiana), the Sheldon Art Gallery (Lincoln, Nebraska), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), the Tate Gallery (London) and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) are among the public collections holding work by James Brooks.

tudied

* 1923-1926: Southern Methodist University; Dallas Art Institute and with Martha Simkins.
* 1927-1930: The Art Students League of New York, New York City; night classes with Kimon Nicolaides and Boardman Robinson.Brooks worked as a commercial letterer and display artist to support himself.

Participated in the Federal Art Project (WPA)

1936-1942 Brooks executed murals: Queens Paublic Library (since demolished), NY; Marine Art Terminal, La Guardia Airport, "Flight" (restored 1980), NY and Post Office, Little Falls, New Jersey.

Teaching positions

* 1947-1948: Columbia University, New York
* 1948-1955: Pratt Institute
* 1955-1960: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
* 1963: Artist-in-residence at the American Academy, Rome, Italy
* 1965-1967: New College, Sarasota, Florida
* 1966: Miami Beach Art Center, Miami Beach, Florida
* 1966-1969: Queens College, NY
* 1971-1972: University of Pennsylvania
* 1975: Cooper Union, New York City

ee also

*Abstract expressionism
*Lyrical Abstraction
*Inscape (visual art)

References

[http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1195256G82BY7.4429&menu=search&aspect=Keyword&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=all&ri=&term=&index=.GW&aspect=Keyword&term=James+Brooks&index=.AW&term=&index=.SW&term=&index=.TW&term=&index=.FW&x=10&y=9#focus "Smithsonian Institution Research Information System; Archival, Manuscript and Photographic Collections, James Brooks"]

Books

* Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793&tab=holdings "New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,"] (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6
*

Article

*Sandler, Irving H. [http://worldcat.org/oclc/54034429?tab=details "James Brooks and the abstract inscape"] , "ARTnews" (New York: Art Foundation, 1963) OCLC: 54034429

External links

* [http://www.gvdgallery.com Greenberg Van Doren Gallery]
* [http://www.artnet.com/awc/james-brooks.html James Brooks catalogue in artnet's "Artist Works Catalogues"]