James Francis Gill

The catalogue raisonné of the co-founder of American Pop Art. James Francis Gill (b. 1934 in Tahoka, Texas) is one of the most important artists of American Pop Art. His paintings, often based on photographs, provide an unusually personal approach to the icons of the 1950s and 60s. Gill suddenly became Hollywood's most celebrated artist when his Marilyn Triptych was added to the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1962--even before the works of Andy Warhol. Through friendships with celebrities such as John Wayne, Martin Luther King, and Marlon Brando, Gill became the contemporary artist-witness of an entire generation. Nevertheless, he kept his distance from the exuberant Hollywood of the time and surprisingly withdrew in 1972, only to reappear on the art market thirty years later. This catalogue raisonné in two volumes impressively documents his work from the early political motifs to the Pop Art icons of his late work. James Francis Gill first worked as a technical draftsman for an architectural firm before devoting himself entirely to art and studying painting at the University of Texas, Austin. He later taught at the University of Idaho, Moscow; the University of California, Irvine; and the University of Oregon, Eugene. His work is exhibited internationally and can be found in numerous public collections, including those of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna.