Louis James

LOUIS JAMES (1920-1996)

Metropolis III  1959

oil on canvas

signed and dated; signed, dated, and inscribed with title on the reverse

25 x 30 ins (63.5 x 76.2 cm)

 

Exhibited:

Oxford, Bear Lane Gallery, 1960, where purchased by Miss Joan Marsden

 

Australian-born, from Adelaide, James was a draughtsman in Australia’s Lands & Survey Department either side of active war service with the Second Australian Imperial Force. In the late 1940s, he joined the Royal South Australia Society of Artists and began to exhibit at John Martin Gallery, Adelaide. He then moved to London, becoming a member of the Artists International Association & the London Group. He was soon taken on by the Redfern Gallery, where he showed regularly throughout the 1950s, often alongside his close friend Alan Reynolds.. He returned to Australia in 1965 & became a tutor at the University of New South Wales. He held 48 solo exhibitions during his lifetime, and had a retrospective show at Bonython-Meadmore Gallery, Adelaide, in 1986. His work is held by many galleries in Australia and the UK, including the Tate, which has a self-portrait, and two Oxford Colleges.