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Piano & Man,
1950, oil on canvas
on board, 96” x 48”
BORN 1922 Oakland, CA DIED 1998 Boston, MA
1922 Born in Oakland, California, the son of Anson Weeks, band leader (‘Dancin’ with Anson”)
and Ruth Daly Weeks, classical pianist. One elder brother, Jack, born in 1921.
1927 Anson Weeks’ band began a seven-year engagement at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San
Francisco. James Weeks enrolls at the Pacific Heights Grammar School.
1930-33 During the early 1930’s, James joins children’s art class at California School of Fine
Arts.
1934-36 Begins Marina Junior High School and meets William Wolff, who becomes a fellow artist
and lifelong friend.
1936-40 Enters college-preparatory Lowell High School where William Wolff and Richard
Diebenkorn are his fellow students.
1939 Sees two important exhibitions: Picasso at the San Francisco Museum of Art, and a
painting exhibition at the
1939 International Exposition, which includes Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.”
1940 Graduates high school. In the autumn, he takes painting classes in the evenings at the
California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, while working at Wells Fargo Bank for
support. At CSFA, he studies with traditionalist painter William Gaw. Especially
interested in Cezanne, Marsden Hartley and Walt Kuhn.
1941 Switches to day classes. Develops friendships with fellow art students Jan Hinchman
and Sturges Mower. Continues working with William Gaw. Sees exhibition of French
painting from David to the present at M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, and is
especially impressed by Courbet.
1943–46 Enlists in the US Air Force.
1944-45 Stationed with the Air Forse in Ipswich, England.
1946 Returns to CSFA on FI Bill. Simultaneously attends Marian Hartwell School of Design,
San Francisco. During this period, he studies with Edward Corbett, Paul Forster, David
Park, Hassel Smith, and Clay Spohn at CSFA, and with Marian Hartwell at her school.
Hartwell, Gaw and Park especially are influential. Friendships with painters at the school
include: Jeremy Anderson, Elmer Bischoff, Ernest Briggs, Lawrence Calcagno, Richard
Diebenkorn, Edward Dugmore, John Grillo, John Hultberg, William Ivey, Jack Jefferson,
Walter Kuhlman, Frank Lobdell and George Stillman.
1947 Continues studying throughout the year at CSFA. Meets Clyfford Still and admires his
paintings, but does not study with him.
1948 Begins teaching part-time at CSFA. On faculty with Bischoff, Corbett, Diebenkorn, Park,
Still and others. Becomes teaching assistant to Marian Hartwell.
1949 Marries Lynn Williams a painter and student at CSFA. Takes a studio with William Wolff
on Magnolia Street where they work until 1955.
1950 First significant museum exhibition in the spring: group show of work by faculty at
CSFA, held at the M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco.
1951 Leaves CSFA in early 1951 in general exodus following resignation of Douglas MacAgy
as Director (effective fall 1950). First solo show: Lucien Labaudt Gallery, San Francisco.
In the summer, he travels to Mexico to study at Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, Mexico
City. Returns to the Bay Area in the fall and takes a job at the Railway Express Shipping
Company at night and paints during the day. First child, Rebecca, is born.
1952 Receives Abraham Rosenberg Traveling Fellowship, given through the San Francisco Art
Association to a Bay Area artist. In November, he begins working for Foster and Kleiser
Sign Painting.
1953-57 During the day, he paints advertising billboards for Foster and Kleiser. Paints at night.
Much work from this period is subsequently destroyed, including a series of paintings
based on heroic subjects. Studies science of optics; reads William Carlos Williams.
Begins friendships with painters Theophilus Brown and Paul Wonner.
1953 Solo exhibition at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco where he
shows a series of studio paintings from the previous year.
1954 Shares the Magnolia Street studio with Elmer Bischoff. Engages in figure drawing
sessions with Bischoff, Diebenkorn and Park.
1955 Solo show at 6 Gallery, San Francisco. Second daughter, Ellen, is born.
1957 Included in Oakland Art Museum’s “Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting,” curated
by Paul Mills, which defined for the first time a “school” of figurative painting centering
around Weeks, Diebenkorn, Bischoff, Park, etc. Weeks later destroyed the paintings
shown there (exhibition travels to Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Leaves sign
painting for free-lance design work and brief stint as staff artist at KPIX-TV. Associates
during 1950’s with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who provides sympathetic criticism of his art.
1958 Solo exhibition at East-West Gallery, San Francisco; shows Woman Singing 1957.
Returns to teaching part-time at CSFA, where he remains on faculty until 1967. Takes
studio on Broadway, with painter John Saccaro. Son, Benjamin, is born.
1959-60 Accepts position vacated by Richard Diebenkorn at the California College of Arts and
Crafts in Oakland, graduate painting. First show in New York City: solo exhibition at
Pointdexter Gallery: Two Musicians, 1960, exhibited. Subsequent painting shows in
1961, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1974. Teaches art classes at San Francisco Museum of Art.
1961 Receives Purchase Prize from Howard Universtiy Washinton, DC. Wins a Price Award at
Winter Invitational, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Receives
the same honor the following year. Included in “Corcoran Biennial,” Corcoran Gallery of
Art, Washington, DC. CSFA changes name to San Francsico Art Institute.
1962 Life drawing sessions with Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown. Solo exhibition at the
Carnegie Institute of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. “Four Artists,” at the Felix Landau
Gallery, Los Angeles. “Five Decades of the Figure,” at the State University of Iowa
at Iowa City. Group exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
1964 First solo exhibition in Los Angeles at the Felix Landau Gallery; shows “Benjamin and
Ellen in a Garden,” 1962 (also 1967, 1970). Group exhibition at Carnegie Institute of
Art Pittsburgh.
1965 Solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Included in “Contemporary
American Paintings,” at the Kranner Art Museum, University of Illinois at Campaign.
Visiting artist at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
1966 Figure drawings sessions with Elmer Bischoff, Julius Hatofsky and Albin Light. Included
in “Recent Still Life, “ at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Switches
from oil to acrylic paint for the majority of subsequent paintings.
1967 Moves with family to Los Angeles to take teaching position at the University of California
at Los Angeles, on faculty with Richard Diebenkorn. Teaches at UCLA until 1970.
Engages again in figure drawing sessions with Diebenkorn and Theophilus Brown.
Participates in “Painters Behind Painters,” at the California Palace of the Legion of
Honor, San Franicsco. Second Felix Landau Gallery solo exhibition, and the third in
1970. Becomes friends with a group of artists including Sam Amato, William Brice, Les
Diller, Eliot Elgart and Charles Garabedian.
1969 Awarded research grant from UCLA to do “large-scale figure painting.” Begins teaching
during the summers through 1972 at the Skowhegan School, Skowhegan, Maine.
Included in “Collector’s Choice,” at the Newport Pavillion, Newport, California.
1970 Moves to Massachusetts to accept a teaching position as associate professor at Boston
University, which he holds for over eighteen years, concentrating primarily on graduate
painting courses. Participates in Boston University Art Program at Tanglewood,
summers 1970, 1972, 1973. Participates in “Expo ‘70,” Osaka, Japan.
1971 Solo exhibition at Boston University Art Gallery; shows Kitchen Still Life, 1967, reworked
in 1973.
1973 Invited to teach at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts as the Salzman
Visiting Artist. Included in “Period of Exploration, 1945-1950,” at the Oakland Museum
of California Art, Oakland, CA.
1974 Solo exhibition at the Pointdexter Gallery.
1975 Included in “Painted in Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art,” in Boston, MA (travels to
Colby College Art Museum, Waterville , Maine). Included in “Recent Acquisitions,” at the
Oakland Museum of California Art, Oakland, CA. Included in “Boston 200: Bicentennial
Collection,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, in Boston, MA. Included in “Four
Figurative Artists,” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA.
1976 Solo exhibition at Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston. Included in “America 1976,” at the
Corcoran Galery of Art, Washington, DC. Included in “A Selection of American Art:
Skowhegan Shcool, 1947-1976,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
(travels to Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine). Receives commission for
painting from the US Department of the Interior in conjunction with its traveling
exhibition honoring the Bicentennial. Included in “Painting and Sculpture in California:
The Modern Era,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (travels to
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC).
1977 Solo exhibition at the Charles Campbell Gallery, in San Francisco.
1978 Solo exhibition at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis Universitty, Waltham, MA (travels to
the Oakland Museum of California Art, Oakland, CA).
1980 Solo exhibition at the Sunne Savage Gallery, Boston. Included in “Academy Institute
Purchase Exhibition,” American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters, New York
(Purchase Prize).
1981 Solo exhibition at the Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Visiting Artist, Yale
University, New Haven, CT.
1982 Included in “Contemporary Landscape,” at the Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi,
TX. Included in “Perspective on Contemporary Realism,” Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (travels to Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL).
1983 Included in “Directions in Bay Area Painting: A Survey of Three Decades-1940s-1960s,”
at the University of California, Davis, CA.
1984 Included in “American and European Painting and Sculpture,” at the LA Louvre Gallery,
Los Angeles (also 1986).
1985 Solo exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York.
1986 Included in “Landscape, Seascape, Cityscape,” at the Contemporary Art Center, New
Orleans, LA.
1988 Solo exhibition at the Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York. Retires from teaching.
1989 Solo exhibition at the John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1992 Solo exhibition at the Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery in San Francisco, CA.
1993 Solo exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York, NY.
1994 Solo exhibition at the Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery in San Francisco, CA. Catalogue
published
1998 Passes away in Boston, MA
1999 Solo exhibition at the Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2002 Solo exhibition at the Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2010 Group exhibition at ArtZone 461 Gallery, San Francisco, CA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
American Federation of Arts, New York, NY; Capitol Records, Los Angeles, CA; Crysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; Commercial Union Assurance Company, Boston, MA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Howard University, Washington, DC; Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, Washington, DC; Lytton Center of Visual Arts, Los Angeles, CA; Maine Savings Bank of Portland, Portland, ME; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Ringling Brothers Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA; Seattle First National Bank, Seattle, WA; The Oakland Museum of California Art, Oakland, CA.
PARTNERS COLLECTION
JAMES WEEKS
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