James Claussen is a contemporary American lithographer and abstract painter. His

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

is distinguished by the technique of drawing directly on the stone surface as a second drawing process. His paintings combine surrealism with abstraction.

Biography

Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Claussen received a bachelor’s in fine arts in painting and printmaking from the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approxi ...

where he was a student of William Wind McKim who was a student of Thomas Hart Benton.About James Claussen, Web site of James Claussen, accessed January 6, 2020 http://www.jamesclaussen.com/about-james-claussen.html Claussen also holds a master’s in fine arts in painting and printmaking from the

University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design The School of Art + Art History + Design is in the Arts Division of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. History Art has been taught at the University of Washingto ...

where he studied with

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

and

Glen Alps Glen Alps (1914-1996) was a printmaker and educator who is credited with having developed the collagraph. A collagraph is a print whose plate is a board or other substrate onto which textured materials are glued. The plate may be inked for printi ...

. Lawrence was Claussen’s graduate advisor. Claussen has lectured widely on lithography and is currently a professor at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

and the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. S ...

in San Francisco. Claussen’s lithographs appear as illustrations in books including ''The Sea Within Us'' by

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

and the ''California Society of Printmakers: One Hundred Years, 1913-2013'' and on magazine covers including ''New Letters: A Magazine of Fine Writing''. His work is included in collections of corporations and numerous museums globally. These include the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, the

Ackland Art Museum The Ackland Art Museum is a museum and academic unit of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940) to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is located a ...

, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, the University of Wisconsin

Chazen Museum of Art The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The Chazen Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. History Until 2005, the Museum was known regularly as th ...

, the

deCordova Museum The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a 30-acre sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950. It is the largest park of its kind ...

in Boston, and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Claussen’s shows have included 19 solo exhibitions and 76 group exhibitions. His solo exhibitions include shows at the Peninsula Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Gary Francis Fine Art in Alameda, California, and the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco. Claussen’s work is also displayed in the Oakes-Wood House in Iowa City which is the former home of lithographer and painter

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...

. Claussen is a former vice president of the California Society of Printmakers.

Work

The ''Seattle Times'' calls Claussen’s lithographs “great precision of line and texturing and an imagery markedly different from the abstract images of most contemporary printmakers.” According to the ''Kansas City Star'', Claussen operates at “a high level of care and craft.” The Star describes Claussen’s work as “gentle surrealism” which means “pictures formed of accumulated and disparate images that seem to float through a field of ether.” ''New Letters: a Magazine of Fine Writing'' quotes Claussen as saying “as objective as the realism of drawn objects may seem, their meaning is ruled by the imaginative eye.” Claussen’s lithographs have been reproduced in numerous media outlets including ''San Francisco magazine,'' ''San Jose Mercury News'', ''Oakland Tribune'', ''Iowa Press-Citizen'', ''Saint Joseph Gazette'' and ''Artslant magazine''.“James Claussen Exhibit Kicks Off Fall,” Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, August 29, 1999. http://www.jamesclaussen.com/articles.html

References

External links

“Profile of James Claussen,” ''Artslant magazine'', accessed January 25, 2019
James Claussen
James Claussen: Selected Artist, Prints: CA, LA and Beyond, Part 2, juried by Michelle Murillo, California Society of Printmakers, February 13 – 28th, 2015, accessed March 3, 2019. * http://www.caprintmakers.org/prints-ca-la-and-beyond-part-ii-selected-artists-announcement/ Artist's Website
James Claussen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claussen, James Living people American lithographers 20th-century American painters 20th-century lithographers 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 21st-century lithographers American contemporary painters American male painters Artists from Iowa Artists from California Kansas City Art Institute alumni University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design alumni San Francisco Art Institute faculty Academy of Art University faculty Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male artists