James Brooks (painter)

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James D. Brooks
Lyrical Abstraction

James David Brooks (October 18, 1906 – March 9, 1992) was an American

abstract painter, art teacher, and winner of the Logan Medal of the Arts
.

Life and career

Brooks was born in

Art Students League
.

Between 1936 and 1942, Brooks participated in the

Port Authority in the 1950s but restored in 1980.[4]

Between 1942 and 1945, Brooks was enlisted as a combat artist with the American military. Based in Cairo, he traveled to Palestine; Benghazi, Libya; and other parts of Egypt during this time, photographing American military camps, the aftermath of combat, and locals. From these photographs, he created a series of drawings and gouache paintings that were then submitted to the Army.

Upon returning to the U.S. in 1946, he worked in Washington, D.C., where he met artist

East Hampton, New York, in 1945.[5]

Considered a first-generation

abstract expressionist painter, Brooks was among the first abstract expressionists to use staining as an important technique. Brooks had his first one-man exhibition of his abstract expressionist paintings in 1950 at the Peridot Gallery in New York, where he displayed some "dripped" paintings that reflected Pollock's influence.[4] According to art critic Carter Ratcliff,[6] "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.

In 1947, Brooks and Park married. Two years later, they moved to East Hampton and set up a studio at Rocky Point in Montauk. His work was displayed in the 9th Street Art Exhibition in 1951.

In 1954, Hurricane Carol blew the studio from its hill, destroying several of Brooks' paintings. Brooks had their undamaged house barged to Springs and installed on an 11-acre parcel on Neck Path close to Pollock's home.

Brooks died in 1992, of Alzheimer's disease in Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Brookhaven, Long Island.[4] Park died in 2010.

The couple had no children, and left their house and studios vacant. In 2013, the property was sold to the Town of East Hampton, which planned to demolish the buildings. A preservation campaign led the town to abandon the plan and in February 2017, officials announced plans to restore the studio and house, noting that Brooks paint cans were still in the studio.[7][8][9]

Tate Gallery

Public collections holding works by Brooks include: the

Tate Gallery (London) and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota). His works were also exhibited by galleries including the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City, the Peridot Gallery in New York, and Washburn Gallery in New York.[11][12][13]

Education
James Brooks "Labor and Leisure" (1938) in the former Little Falls, NJ Post Office

Teaching positions

See also

References

  1. ^ KENDALL, CURLEE (June 12, 2010). "DALLAS ART INSTITUTE". tshaonline.org. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  2. ^ "Little Falls, NJ New Deal Art | WPAmurals.com". March 22, 2016. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "James Brooks with his mural at the Woodside Library, circa 1940". Smithsonian Institution.
  4. ^ a b c "James Brooks, an Artist, Is Dead; Abstract Expressionist Was 85". The New York Times. March 12, 1992. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  5. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths BROOKS, CHARLOTTE PARK". February 3, 2018. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ Art International, February 1973. pp 38–39
  7. ^ "East Hampton Town To Consider Preserving Artists' Studios In Springs - Springs". May 27, 2014. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  8. ^ "Property". Brooks Park Heritage Project. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  9. ^ "East Hampton To Spend $850K To Restore Artists' Studio And Home In Springs - Springs". February 2, 2018. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  10. ^ "Empire State Plaza Art Collection". Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  11. ^ "The Location of the Second Generation". New York Sun. Archived from the original on July 23, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
  12. ^ James Brooks. 1994. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
  13. ISBN 9780292756656. Archived
    from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2015.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System; Archival, Manuscript and Photographic Collections, James Brooks

Books

Article

External links

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