James Brooks
Artist/Culture
Hans Namuth
(American, 1915–1990)
Dateabout 1952
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionssheet: 17.7 x 27.8 cm (6 15/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineHeald Foundation Fund
Terms
Object number1996.53
Label TextBrooks (1906–1992) was an American muralist, abstract painter, and was among the first Abstract Expressionists to use staining as an important technique. According to critic Carter Ratcliff, “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 solo exhibition of Abstract Expressionist paintings in 1949 at the Peridot Gallery in New York City.
ProvenanceG.W. Einstein, New York, NYOn View
Not on view
