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(b. 1935, Kansas City, MO) BA in Literature 1957, and Art and Architecture 1960, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Studied at the Art Student’s League, Woodstock, NY; the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; and the Nelson Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. Howell was awarded the Humanities Prize for the Arts at Stanford University 1960. Selected solo exhibitions include Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe NM 2011; the vonBartha, Chesa, Switzerland Gallery installation of the progression of six 168 x 168 cm paintings 2010 forthcoming documentation catalogue; Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM 1995 Gradient Intervals–Series 6.4 catalog, 2000 [s10] catalogue, 2004; von Bartha Collections, Basel, Switzerland 2000, 2005; Conny Dietzschold Gallery Sydney/Cologne 2000, 2006; and BARTHA Contemporary Art, London, UK, 2004 James Howell catalogue, and 2008 The Grey Count catalogue. Distinguished group exhibitions include Kunstverein Museum, Eislingen, Germany, 2005 Minimal Means catalog; Florence Lynch Gallery, New York, NY, 2001 Monochrome/Monochrome?; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 2005 Natalie and Irving Forman Collection of Paintings catalogue, 2008 Natalie and Irving Forman Collection of Works on Paper catalogue. Howell was represented in the Werner H. Kramarsky collection of works on paper exhibition, Nueva York El Papel de las Últimas Vanguardias, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Estában Vicente, Segovia, Spain 2009 catalog; Albright-Knox Art Gallery Recent Acquisitions 2008 included presentation of a four-part painting by Howell. Howell is in many permanent private and public collections including the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Estéban Vicente; Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University New York, NY; Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellseley College, Wellesley, MA; and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Howell lives and works in the West Village in New York City.
ABOUT THE WORKS
I have been painting since 1962. My paintings became reductive by degrees to the point that since 1993 I have been concerned with gradations of a particular gray. In preparing a group of paintings, each painting’s gradation is lightest at the top of the canvas and falls to shadow as it moves downward. I make drawings including limits i.e., the top and bottom of each painting. Eleven works on paper of six limits each, precede the progression of six paintings at Chesa. The studies that I make educe how the divisions will move – change. To make the gradation I establish mathematical curves. I work with differential equations and free form curves. The curves arrange the movement in the painted fields. For paintings I first equalize the paint’s viscosity then I weigh the paint mixtures. This seemingly insignificant and time consuming process smoothes and softens the movement within the paintings to accommodate lightness. Some of my conversations on paper are post painting deconstructs reviewing the movement within the field boundaries and the progression steps. Every step along the way is documented. [s10], (series ten), initiated in 1996 now has 467 paintings and works on paper. A quality of time that I appreciate seems to be sympathetic to the nature of the chesa itself.
James Howell, New York, NY
James-howell.com
HONOURS
1970 Westchester Museum Annual, New York, Juror: Dore Ashton
1961 Humanities Prize for the Arts, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
1953 Art Prize, The Hill School, Pottstown, PA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2004 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Gallery N. von Bartha Contemporary Art, London, England (catalogue)
2000 Galerie von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1998 STIL-American Fine Art, Dusseldorf, Germany
1995 Sharon Truax Fine Art, Venice, CA
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1993 New Works, Henry Art Gallery, U. of Washington, Seattle, WA
1992 Windows Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
1990 Sandpiper Gallery, Tacoma, WA
Wagner Gallery, Tacoma, WA
1982 Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1980 Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA
1979 Kiku Gallery, Seattle, WA
1978 Kiku Gallery, Seattle, WA
1976 University Unitarian Fine Arts Gallery, Seattle, WA
Keller Gallery, Salem, OR
1974 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
1971 Polly Friedlander Gallery, Seattle, WA
Kenady Gallery, Gig Harbor, WA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 Die Weisse Galerie, Cologne, Germany
STIL-American Fine Art, Dusseldorf, Germany
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
W. H. Kramarsky 560 Broadway, New York
Basel Art Fair, Galerie Von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland
Sharon Truaz Fine Art, Venice, CA
1997 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Die Weisse Galerie, Cologne, Germany
W. H. Kramarsky 560 Broadway, New York
Sharon Truax Fine Art, Venice, CA
1996 Sharon Traux Fine Art, Venice, CA
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Die Weisse Galerie, Cologne
W.H. Kramarsky 560 Broadway, New York
1995 Sharon Traux Fine Art, Venice, CA
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
1994 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
1993 Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, CA
1992 Turner/ Krull Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1990 Merrill Place Gallery, Seattle, WA
Italia, Seattle, WA
1984 Poncho Auction, Seattle, WA
1982 Foster/White Ninth Anniversary Show, Seattle, WA
Squibb Gallery, Princeton, NJ
1980 Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1979 Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA
1977 Kiku Gallery, Seattle, WA
1976 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
Kiku Gallery, Seattle, WA
1975 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
1973 Seattle Art Museum Rental Gallery, Seattle, WA
1972 Polly Friedlander Gallery, Seattle, WA
North Point Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Bertrand Russell Memorial Exhibition, London, England
1971 Oklahoma Art Institute, Oklahoma City, MI
Robert Paul Gallery, Chicago, IL
Polly Friedlander Gallery, Seattle, WA
North Point Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Bertrand Russell Memorial Exhibition, London, England
1970 Seattle Art Museum Northwest Annual, Seattle, WA
Smith Museum Annual, Springfield, MA
Frye Art Museum Annual, Seattle, WA
Richard White Gallery, Seattle, WA
Manolides Gallery, Seattle, WA