The Art of James Brooks Gets a Retrospective at Parrish Art Museum

“A rendezvous of what you know and what has never happened before.”

That’s how celebrated painter James Brooks described the goal he was chasing as an artist in a 1975 interview with then-curator of the Guggenheim Museum, Louise Averill Svendsen.

By that time, Brooks had already produced several iconic works in social realism, spent years as a combat artist chronicling World War II and emerged as one of the original Abstract Expressionists.

He also developed a paint staining technique that came to be one of his artistic signatures.

In the years after the interview, conducted at his home and studio in Springs, Brooks continued producing art until succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease in 1992.

A new look at Brooks’ career and evolution as an artist, “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing,” is now on display at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. It is the first major retrospective of his work in more than 35 years. The exhibition spans seven decades and features more than 100 paintings, prints, lithographs and sketches.

On view until October 15, the showcase is spread throughout two of the museum’s main gallery spaces and along its spine gallery.

“Brooks was part of the Abstract Expressionist movement and his work was an important part of that, but be never became as well-known as his friend Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning or Mark Rothko,” explained curator Klaus Ottmann. “I think he had mixed feelings about that and was maybe a little bitter about not getting as much exposure or recognition. His work was significant though and there is much to be discovered through the stages of his career.”

Ottmann came to the Parrish to curate the Brooks exhibition, along with the help of assistant curator and publications coordinator Kaitlin Halloran, after stepping down as head curator of The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. in 2022. He was recently named the Parrish’s new adjunct curator of the collection.

Ottmann admits he wasn’t overly familiar with Brooks’ work when he took on the role of curator of his retrospective, but immersed himself in learning about the artist and came to appreciate his long and varied career.

“This was an opportunity for me to involve myself and dive deep into his career,” Ottmann said. “The richness and wealth of the materials available for the show were fascinating to me.”

The Brooks retrospective was made possible largely thanks to a gift from the James and Charlotte Brooks Foundation. In 2017, the foundation transferred all of its holdings — nearly 100 pieces of art made by Brooks and his wife — to the Parrish before dissolving. In return, the Parrish agreed to assemble a retrospective of Brooks’ work and publish a catalog.

James and Charlotte (Park) Brooks moved to Springs full time in 1957 and remained there for the rest of their lives. They were active members of the local arts community.

Originally, “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing,” was expected to take place in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the museum to sideline those plans.

“We were looking for a good moment to do the exhibition and unfortunately when we found it, the pandemic set us back,” explained Corrine Erni, the Parrish’s chief curator. “We are very pleased to have been able to relaunch this show and fulfill this promise and present such an important artist.

“I am happy to see Brooks finally get his due now,” she added.

In addition to the exhibition, “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing” will be accompanied by a 176-page illustrated catalogue featuring essays by Ottmann and artist Mike Solomon.

James Brooks was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved with his family to Dallas, Texas at the age of 10. Ten years later, he moved to New York City and began studying at the Art Students League.

The Parrish exhibition is organized chronologically and begins with references to the artist’s earliest abstract paintings of the 1920s and his more figurative work in the 1930s. Next, it covers Brooks’ stint as one of the most successful muralists for the federal government’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal era agency meant to put Americans to work on public projects.

In the mid-1930s, Brooks was commissioned by the WPA to create a mural for LaGuardia Airport in New York City. His “Flight,” was installed in 1942 and spanned 12 feet by 235 feet in the rotunda of the Marine Air Terminal. The circular painting was the largest mural produced by the WPA. It depicts the progress of man’s efforts to conquer the skies, from Icarus, to the Wright Brothers, to what was modern air travel at the time the piece was created.

In 1952, the Port Authority abruptly ordered the mural painted over — possibly due to suspicions the mural was Communist propaganda. “Flight” remained hidden from view for 30 years, until art historians successfully lobbied for its restoration. Brooks assisted in the restoration.

A huge reproduction of one of the panels of “Flight” is included in the Parrish retrospective.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” Erni said. “It’s more figurative than much of his work and a really good example of the breadth of his artistry.”

After finishing the “Flight” installation, Brooks was enlisted to work as a combat artist during World War II. He was stationed in Cairo and traveled throughout the Middle East chronicling the war there.

“It’s a part of his career that is not well known,” Ottmann explained. “He made lots and lots of watercolors while he was stationed there and we have a wonderful selection in the exhibition.”

When Brooks returned from the war he returned to abstract painting and soon was counted among the original, most significant Abstract Expressionist painters of the 1940s and 1950s. Lesser known than his contemporaries — and friends — Pollock, de Kooning and Rothko, Brooks nevertheless created some iconic work and took it a step further.

In 1948, he discovered, by accident, that paint seeping through unprimed Osnaburg cloth would create an unintended painting on the reverse side. Soon he began experimenting with the technique that would come to be known as paint staining.

“This was his big artistic breakthrough and when it happened he came into his own then,” Ottmann said. “It was very original and kind of guided him for the rest of his career.”

Ottmann said the Parrish exhibition has several of the paint stain pieces on display, including one mounted backless on a freestanding pedestal so visitors can view the piece from both sides.

By the 1960s, Brooks was experimenting with scale, materials and both sides of his medium and shifting to simpler compositions.

“He was also a prolific printmaker and early on… the first thing he ever sold was a print from the 1930s to the Whitney [Museum] and he continued to do etchings and silk screens and other lithographs and we have a large selection of those in the exhibition as well,” Ottmann said. “There are more than 100 pieces on display and I tried to include all of these various aspects of his work in the show.”

Erni said she considers Brooks among the most important American Abstract Expressionists.

“He didn’t start as such, and had many different iterations as an artist,” she said. “He evolved and though Brooks never achieved the same household name recognition as the others, he was just as important.”

“James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing” runs through October 15 at the Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill. For more information on the show, visit parrishart.org.