Martin Samuel James (7 July 1920 – 11 October 2011) was an English-American art historian known primarily for his translations, with

Harry Holtzman Harry Holtzman (June 8, 1912 – September 25, 1987) was an American artist and founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. Early life At the age of fourteen, Holtzman visited the ''Société Anonyme’s'' 1926 “International E ...

, of the writings of Piet Mondrian into English. James was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, but was raised in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where he attended

Lycée Janson-de-Sailly Lycée Janson de Sailly is a ''lycée'' located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The ''lycéens'' of Janson are called ''les jansoniens'' and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic inst ...

. He later attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees, where he studied under

Meyer Schapiro Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...

. He received his B.A. from Columbia College in 1943, M.A. in 1962, and Ph.M. in 1973 from Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He taught at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY from 1949 to 1985, where he created one of the first collegiate programs on urbanism. Professor James also took a keen interest in urban planning and urban design, both inside and outside the classroom, and was active in historical preservation movements in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood in which he lived. He died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, aged 91.

References

Published books

* ''The new art — The new life: The collected writings of Piet Mondrian''. With Harry Holtzman. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1986 and reprints.

External links

* 'Professor James being interviewed in the Phaidon Press documentary Mondrian: (Mr. Boogie Woogie Man).' 1920 births 2011 deaths American art historians Brooklyn College faculty Writers from London 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Columbia College (New York) alumni American male non-fiction writers British emigrants to the United States {{Art-historian-stub