Louis Robert James (1920-1996)

Biography

1920 Born in Adelaide, South Australia
1937 Joined the Department of Lands and Survey as a draftsman
1938 Met Pat McGahan
1939 Called up at outbreak of war, for duration
1940 Transferred to 2nd AIF, serving in England, Middle East, Siege of Tobruk, Palestine, Syria.
1940 Returned to Australia, then to New Guinea. Suffered severe malaria, landing him in various hospitals in Queensland, NSW and South Australia
1943 Married Pat
1944 Discharged from AIF and returned to Department of Lands and Survey
1945 Became seriously interested in painting. Joined Royal South Australian Society of Artists
1949 First solo exhibition at John Martin's Gallery, Adelaide. Travelled to England
1950 Lived in London. Joined AIA and London Group. Worked as a draftsman at the Geological Museum, South Kensington
1952-55 Various trips to Paris, other regions of France, Wales and Southern England
1956-58 Worked with Robert Savage, framer, with Fred Williams and many other painters
1960 Met Kim Bonython in London. Established own business restoring antique furniture, gilding and framing
1963 Teaching part-time at the Shoreditch Technical College, drawing and the history of furniture and textiles
1965 Part-time tutoring at the University of NSW Architecture faculty, drawing
1978 Travels to London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, New York

Solo Exhibitions

1949 John Martin's Gallery, Adelaide
1956 Redfern Gallery, London
1957 Redfern Gallery, London
1959 The Stone Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
1960 Royal South Australian Society of Artists Gallery, Adelaide
1961 Redfern Gallery, London
1961 Redfern Gallery, London
1961 Macquarie Gallery, Sydney
1962 The Stone Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England
1962 Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
1963 The Stone Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England
1963 Bonython Gallery, Adelaide
1963 Macquarie Gallery, Sydney
1963 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1964 Redfern Gallery, London
1964 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1965 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1965 The Clune Gallery, Sydney
1965 South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne
1966 Bonython Galleries, Adelaide and Sydney
1967 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1967 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1968 South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne
1969 Bonython Galleries, Adelaide and Sydney
1969 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1971 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1971 Bonython Gallery, Sydney
1974 Bonython Gallery, Sydney
1975 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1975 Macquarie Gallery, Canberra
1977 Bonython Gallery, Adelaide
1977 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1979 The Town Gallery, Brisbane
1979 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1980 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney
1980 Bonython Gallery, Sydney
1981 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney
1983 Bonython Gallery, Adelaide
1984 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney
1986 Bonython-Meadmore Gallery, Adelaide
1988 Bonython-Meadmore Gallery, Sydney
1990 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1994 Von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle
1994 Bonython-Meadmore Gallery, Adelaide Festival Exhibition, Adelaide
1994 Von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle
1997 Delmar Tribute Exhibition
1998 Savill Gallery, Sydney
1999 Savill Gallery, Melbourne

Group Exhibitions

1949 ‘Six Painters’, AIA Gallery, London
1950 Royal Society of British Artists, London
1950 Society of Education on Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1951-56 'London Group' exhibitions
1952 ‘Artists for Peace Exhibition’, Woburn Place, London
1952 Society of Education on Art, Imperial Institute, London
1952-1963 ‘Summer Exhibitions’, Redfern Gallery, London
1955 'The Mirror and the Square', New Burlington Gallery, London
1955 'Christmas Exhibitions' Roland Browse & Delbanco, London
1956 'The British Abstract and Metavisual Exhibition', Redfern Gallery, London
1956 Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide
1957 'Names to Remember', Roland Browse & Delbanco, London
1957 'The British Abstract and Metavisual Exhibition', Leige, Belgium
1958 'Portraiture the Dying Art', Roland Browse & Delbanco, London
1958 'Christmas Image', Redfern Gallery, London
1959 'Three British Painters', Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
1960 'Loan Exhibition of Commonwealth Art', Castle Museum, Norwich
1961 'Australian Painting', Whitechapel Gallery, London
1961 'Australian Painting', Burr Gallery, Los Angeles
1961 'Commonwealth Painting', Commonwealth Institute, London
1961 ‘John Moores Liverpool Exhibition’, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1962 ‘Australian Paintings: Colonial, Impressionist, Contemporary’, Tate Gallery, London
1962 ‘Recent Australian Painting’, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1963 'Australian Painting', Tate Gallery, London
1963 'Australian Painting', Folkstone and Frankfurt
1964 'Five Australian Painters' (with Blackman, Boyd, Perceval and Rowell), Queens Square Gallery, London
1966 Los Angeles Trade Fair
1967 Expo '67, Montreal
1967 Mertz Collection, USA
1972 'Australian Paintings & Tapestries of Past 20 Years', New South Wales House, London
1975 'Women in Art', Fremantle
1975, 79 McCaughey Exhibition Invitation, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1978 'Contemporary Australian Drawing', Art Gallery of Western Australia
1982 '200 Years Australian Painting' (coordinated by AGNSW), Japan
1986 'Contemporary Australian Watercolours and Drawings', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
1989 ‘Adelaide Angries: South Australian Paintings of the 40s’, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
2004 ‘The Boehm Collection 1958-1984’, Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney

Awards

1946 Life Prize, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide
1957 Maude Vizard-Wholohan Prize, Adelaide
1964 City of Wollongong Prize, NSW
1965 Royal Easter Show, Sydney (modern industrial) prize                 
1965 'Corio 5 star whisky prize', Geelong
1965 2nd Prize, Georges Invitation, Melbourne
1967 Sulman Prize, Sydney
1967 Georges Invitation Prize, Melbourne
1968 Newcastle Gallery Prize
1970 Sulman Prize, Sydney
1970 2nd TAA Art Prize, Melbourne
1972 Maitland Prize
1972 Stanhope Purchase Prize, Queensland
1972 Tamworth Prize
1973 Drummoyne Prize
1974 Coffs Harbour Acquisitive

Collections

Most Australian State Galleries and many Regional Galleries
Many private collections in Australia, UK and USA
Many regional galleries in the UK, including: Derbyshire, Durham, Hertfordshire, Hull Laing, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Northumberland, Nottingham, Newport, and Wakefield galleries.
Albury City Council
Art Bank
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Bank of NSW, London and Sydney
Bedford College, London
Bega Municipal Art Gallery
Bendigo Art Gallery
BHP Collection, Melbourne
CBA Bank Collection, Melbourne
Childrens Hospital Westmead Art Gallery Fund
City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
City of Wagga Wagga Collection
Coffs Harbour Municipal Collection
Commonwealth Art Advisory Board Collection
Commonwealth Bank, NSW and SA
Dunedin Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Flinders University, SA
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Gold Coast Art Gallery
Heide Museum of Modern Art
H.M. Prisons Collections, Great Britain
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of WA
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, England
Lewers Bequest, Penrith Art Gallery
Lincoln College, Oxford, England
Macquarie Bank, Sydney
Macquarie University, Sydney
Maitland City Art Gallery
Mertz Collection, USA
Muswellbrook City Collection
Nailsworth Technical College, Adelaide
National Bank of Commerce, Seattle, Washington
National Bank, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Nepean College of Advanced Education
New England Regional Art Museum
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
Orange City Council
Orient Line, London
Parliament House, NSW
Queensland Art Gallery
Rainier Collection, Seattle, USA
Reserve Bank of Australia
Rockhampton Art Gallery
Rothman Trust, Oxford, England
Royal Glasgow Fine Art
St. Lucia University, Brisbane
Stanthorpe City Art Gallery, Queensland
Sydney University
Tamworth City Art Gallery
Teachers Training College, Melbourne
Teachers Training College, Perth
Temple Newsam House, Leeds
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, England
Trinity Grammar School, Sydney
University of Melbourne
University of New South Wales
University of Newcastle
University of Queensland
University of Townsville
WA Rural Industries Bank (NSW Branch)
Wagga Municipal Council
Woollongong Municipal Gallery

Selected Bibliography

Adelaide Angries, Jane Hylton, 1989
A Guide to Modern Australian Paintings, Luck 1970
Apollo Magazine, 1963
Arena (cover), Arena Publications Committee 1986
Art Acquisitions 1979-1980, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
Art and Artists of South Australia, Benko, 1970
Art in BHP House, 1973
Arts in Australia, Reed 1962
Art International, April 1970
Art of Australia Datebook, Ink Group Publications, 1994
Artists in Action, Australian War Memorial, Lola Wilkins 2003
Art News & Review, London, November 1957
Art Spectrum (Switzerland), January 1975
Australasian Art News, Sept 1981
Australian Artists, Studio International Art, London, January 1964
Australian Painting Colonial Impressionist, Griffin Press, 1962
Australian Painters 1964-1966
Australian Painting – Modern, Gleeson 1971
A Vision Realized: Selections from Trinity Grammar Art Collection 1998
Basler Nachrichten, West Germany, December 1957
City/Art, Heinemann 1978
Civilised Magic, Ronald Miller, 1974
Contemporary Australian Drawing 1978
Contemporary Australian Drawing Survey
Darbyshire Museum Picture of the Month 1950
Die Weltkunst, Munich, December 1957
Encyclopedia of Australian Art, McCulloch, 1970, 1994
European Art This Month, December 1957
Hemisphere Prints for Asia 1962
Leeds Art Calender, Great Britain 1958
Louis James – Paintings, Lou Klepac, Beagle Press 1986
Modern Australian Painting, Beaverbrook Newspaper Ltd., London, 1962
Modern Australian Painting 1970-1975, Bonython 1976
New Art Four, Neville Drury 1990
One Hundred & Twenty Two Artists Portraits, mainly self-portraits (1948-1968), Tate Gallery Archive Collection 1988
Poliman Exhibition, Barry Stern Gallery, 1980
Present Day Art in Australia, Horton 1970
Prisme des Arts, Paris, 1956
Rainer Collection – World Banking, USA 1978
Reflections of Reality (cover), Rigby 1977
Rural Industries Bank of West Australia Bank Collection, Barbara Chapman, 1988
South Australian Painters of the 1940s
Studio International, January 1974
Swinburne East Coast West Coast, works from 60s and 70s 1997
Survey of West Australian Gallery foreword by Lou Klepac
The Beach, Geoffrey Dutton, 1985
The Most Noble Art of Them All, Laurie Thomas 1976
The Seventies: Australian Paintings & Tapestries, Collection of National Australia Bank, 1982
Two hundred Years of Australian Painting, Thomas, 1971
University of Western Australia Art Collection 1998
West Australian Gallery (foreword Lou Klepac)
Who’s Who in Art, 10th edition, Great Britain 1960

Source: 'Louis James: Paintings', with an Introduction by Lou Klepac, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 1986

KR