James Brooks
1906–1992
, St. Louis, Missouri
James Brooks was an American artist and an important representative of Abstract Expressionism. After his early figurative work, he turned to abstraction in the late 1940s, partly under the influence of his friend Jackson Pollock. In his paintings he combined spontaneous effects of flowing paint with deliberately constructed forms and compositions.
Brooks was part of the post-war New York avant-garde and exhibited alongside artists including Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. His work was shown at documenta II and at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1963 the Whitney Museum of American Art organised a major retrospective of his work.
