James Budd Dixon (November 26, 1900 – December 1, 1967) was an American

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

painter and printmaker. He was a member of the "Sausalito Six" group of San Francisco Bay Area painters.

Family and education

James Budd Dixon was born to a well-to-do family in San Francisco, California. In the 1920s, he studied art at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he was an illustrator for several campus publications. He served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, after which he returned to studying art under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

, this time at the

California School of Fine Arts 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. Approximatel ...

(CSFA, now the San Francisco Art Institute). Among his classmates at CSFA were other emerging Bay Area Abstract Expressionists, including

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

John Hultberg John Hultberg (February 8, 1922 – April 15, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright. Early life a ...

Frank Lobdell Frank Lobdell (1921 - 2013) was an American painter, often associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Bay Area Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Frank Lobdell was born on August 23, 1921 in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Miss ...

, Walter Kuhlman, and George Stillman. They became known as the "Sausalito Six" because most lived in the waterfront town of Sausalito just north of San Francisco (Dixon was one of those who did not, but he frequently met there with the others). Throughout his life, Dixon supported himself in various ways, including as a commercial artist and an art director. In 1950 he became an instructor at CSFA; among his students there were

Sonia Gechtoff Sonia Gechtoff (September 25, 1926 – February 1, 2018) was an American abstract expressionist painter. Her primary medium was painting but she also created drawings and prints. Early life and education Sonia Gechtoff was born in Philadelphia t ...

, Byron McClintock, and Robert S. Neuman.

Art career

Dixon was both a painter and a printmaker. In the 1930s, he painted in a

Social Realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

style, and it wasn't until his years as a student at CSFA that he developed his characteristic mature style, inspired by the early work of

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

. These later paintings featured dramatic strokes of brilliant, harsh color laid on in heavy

impasto ''Impasto'' is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provide ...

, while his prints and drawings were energized by vigorous lines. One critic considered him the most adventurous colorist among the first wave of Abstract Expressionists to emerge from the Bay Area. In 1948 he collaborated with other members of the Sausalito Six to create a portfolio of 17 lithographs entitled ''Drawings'' that is considered a landmark in the history of Abstract Expressionist printmaking. From the 1940s onwards, Dixon exhibited regularly at galleries and museums on the West Coast and occasionally elsewhere. His output became more sporadic after 1960 as a drinking problem accelerated, and he died in San Francisco in 1967. He is buried in

Golden Gate National Cemetery Golden Gate National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in California, located in the city of San Bruno, south of San Francisco. Because of the name and location, it is frequently confused with San Francisco National Cemetery, which ...

next to his wife, Peggy Dixon (1892-1977). Most of his work is in the collection of the Oakland Museum (California), but a few pieces are held by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among other institutions. A small collection of papers, photographs, and slides of Dixon's work is held by the Archives of American Art.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, James Budd 1900 births 1967 deaths Abstract expressionist artists American abstract artists Artists from San Francisco University of California alumni 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American printmakers Modern artists San Francisco Art Institute alumni 20th-century American male artists