Frederic James (1915-1985) is an American painter who specializes in watercolors. He is associated with the Regionalist art movement. Early life
Frederic James was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1915. His father was the master of the Santa Fe Railroad yard. James showed off his early talent for painting, and in 1934, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City received one of his watercolors for their Midwestern Exhibition. James attended the University of Michigan and majored in architecture. After graduating, he was awarded an architectural scholarship to the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he was close friends with Eero Saarinen, Ralph Rapson, and Charles and Ray Eames. Working in partnership with Saarinen and Rapson, he won a national competition, sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art, to design a national theater in Williamsburg, Virginia, defeating, among others, Philip S. Goodwin and Edward Durrell Stone. Despite his talent, architecture was not James's passion, and the only building he had ever designed and built was his home in Kansas City.
Video Frederic James
Art career
In 1939, he returned to Kansas City and dedicated himself to becoming a painter. That year, he won a watercolor prize competition at the Kansas City Art Institute. His career quickly gained momentum. In 1940, he had the work received for the International Watercolle Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and won an Art Book Purchase Gift at the Midwestern Artist Exhibition of the Kansas City Art Institute. The Art Institute soon hired him to teach watercolor classes, and James began a close relationship with fellow well-known Regionalist teacher and artist Thomas Hart Benton. Benton chose James's 15 watercolors to be included in the exhibition of his widely publicized works at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York City in November 1940.
James's art career was detained by World War II. He was registered and assigned first to Fort Leonard Wood and then to Brazil, never seeing the European or Pacific War Theater. After the war, James returned to Kansas City and continued his painting career and taught him at the Art Institute. In 1947, he married Diana Hearne. James had been on Martha's Vineyard with the Benton family for several years, and James soon bought a second house on Martha's Vineyard as well. He also relinquished his teaching position to concentrate on painting, and his reputation continued to flourish, winning the Purchase Award at the Central American Annual Art Performance in 1951 and holding a well-received one-man show at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York in 1952. 1954, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art held an exhibition of his work in their main lending gallery. After the mid-1950s, James lost interest in promoting his work on the national stage, but he continued his productive results, producing a lot of rural watercolors Missouri and Kansas, especially the Flint Hills of Kansas. In addition to his watercolors, James makes a mural for the Lutheran Trinity Church in Mission, Kansas; Overland Park State Bank, and Kansas and Consumer's Coop Association. He also completed a wildflower arrangement at the New York Botanical Garden. He died in 1985.
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References
- Frederic James: A Painter from Kansas City. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. Henry Adams. 1986.
- Frederic James: The Early Years, 1935-1955. Thomas McCormack Artwork, Kansas City, MO, 1992.
- The Artist Bluebook. Lonnie Pierson Dunbar, editor. March 2005.
- Under Influence: The Students of Thomas Hart Benton. Marianne Berardi. Albrecht-Kemper Art Museum. 1993
- Art Reference Davenport. Ray Davenport. 2005.
- Who's Who at American Art. Peter Hastings Falk (editor). 1999
- American Drawing and Water Paint from Kansas City Area. Henry Adams. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. 1992.
- Records of the Chicago Art Institute Annual Exhibition. Peter Hastings Falk. 1990.
- The Society of Independent Artists Exhibition Records, 1917-1944. 1984.
- Missouri, Heart of the Nation: Photo Recording of the Artist Twelve. Charles Ravensway. 1947.
- Kansas City Regional Art. Associated American Artist. New York. 1940
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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