James Arthur Surls (born 1943) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
and educator, known for his large sculptures. He founded the Lawndale Alternative Arts Space at the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
in the 1970s.
Biography
James Arthur Surls was born April 19, 1943 in
Terrell
Terrell, Terell, Terrel, or Terrelle may refer to:
Places United States
*Terrell, Georgia, unincorporated community
*Terrell, North Carolina, unincorporated community in Catawba County, North Carolina, United States
*Terrell, Texas, city in Kau ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. His father Joe William Surls was a carpenter and a cattle breeder.
His mother Martha Lucille Surls (née Ramsey) had been made an honorary
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...
elder as one of "The Wisdom Givers".
He was raised in
Malakoff
Malakoff () is a suburban commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department southwest of Paris, France. Located from the centre of the city, it had a population of 30,286 in 2016. The European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) is base ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
and spend much of his childhood helping his dad with chopping wood and building wooden structures.
Surls attended
Malakoff High School.
After high school he attended
Henderson County Junior College and transferred to a junior college in San Diego.
While in San Diego he received notification of the
military draft
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
and had to return to Texas to file for deferment.
Surls earned a
BS degree in 1966 from
Sam Houston State University
Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...
.
He continued his studies and received a
MFA degree in 1968 from the
Cranbrook Academy of Art
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cr ...
, where he studied sculpture under
Julius Schmidt.
He taught art at
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
, and
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
.
Students of Surls included artists Mary Jenewein, Bernard Brunon, Peter McClennan, Robert Graham, Mark Diamond, Robert McCoy, Chris Huestis,
Diane Falkenhagen, Donald Woodman, and others.
He is best known for large sculptures that are roughly hewn and derive much of their power from a close connection to nature and raw materials. His drawings and prints are largely monotone. Surls' work is particularly organic and primal. Having built a career in the 1980s and 1990s as a Texas artist, Surls relocated to a Colorado ranch and removed his work from for-profit galleries.
In 2009, five Surls bronze-and-steel bouquets were set up on
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
by the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
Parks Public Art Program and the fund for Park Avenue.
Surls has his work in various public museum collections including the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...
,
the
Cranbrook Art Museum
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cra ...
,
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
,
[James Surls in ArtCyclopedia](_blank)
/ref> Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
, Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in ...
, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (widely referred to as The Modern) is an art museum of post-World War II art in Fort Worth, Texas with a collection of international modern and contemporary art. Founded in 1892, The Modern is located in the c ...
, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
Overview
The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds over 20,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum c ...
at the University of Oklahoma, Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum, nicknamed "Prado on the Prairie", is a two-story, 66,000 sq. ft.art museum in Dallas, Texas on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU). Operating as a division of SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, the museum houses one ...
at Southern Methodist University, among many others.
Personal life
Surls has three daughters from his first marriage to Martha Ann Gebhart from 1965 to 1972. His second marriage was to Linda Samuels, she was from New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and they had met at Cranbrook Academy of Art. His third marriage was in 1978 to Charmaine Locke in Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, she was a former student of his at Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
.
In 1997, he moved from Splendora, Texas
Splendora is a city in Montgomery County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,683 at the 2020 census. Splendora was named in reference to the "splendor of its floral environment."Borjas, Rebecca LSplendora, TX.Handbook of Texas Online: Jun ...
to Carbondale, Colorado
The Town of Carbondale is a home rule municipality located in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 6,434 at the 2020 United States Census. Carbondale is a part of the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...
.
See also
* ''Points of View'' (Surls), (1991), outdoor sculpture, Houston, Texas
References
Further reading
* Acconci, Vito, ''Visions of paradise, installations by Vito Acconci, David Ireland, and James Surls, March 24 through April 29, 1984'', Cambridge, Mass., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984.
* Auping, Michael, ''Structure to resemblance, work by eight American sculptors, June 13 – August 23, 1987'', Buffalo, N.Y., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1987.
* Graze, Sue, ''Visions: James Surls, 1974–1984'', Dallas, Tex., Dallas Museum of Art, 1984.
* Locke, Charmaine, Leonard Shlain, and James Surls, ''Finding balance, reconciling the masculine/feminine in contemporary art and culture'', Houston, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 2006.
* Sultan, Terrie & Eleanor Heartney, ''James Surls, the Splendora years, 1977–1997'', Austin, TX, University of Texas Press, 2005.
* Surls, James, ''James Surls, embracing paradox'', St. Louis, MO, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2000.
* Surls, James, Jeanne Lil Chvosta, & Fronia W. Simpson, ''James Surls, in the Meadows and beyond'', Dallas, Tex., Meadows Museum, 2004.
*
*
External links
*
Jackelope
from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surls, James
1943 births
Living people
Sam Houston State University alumni
Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni
20th-century American sculptors
Modern sculptors
People from Montgomery County, Texas
People from Garfield County, Colorado
People from Terrell, Texas
Artists from Texas
People from Henderson County, Texas
21st-century American sculptors
Sculptors from Texas