James Francis Gill

James Francis Gill is one of the last living American Pop Art artists from the very beginning. He was born in 1934, six years after Andy Warhol, with whom he naturally maintained contact as a young artist and held several exhibitions together.
Since his early “Woman in Cars” paintings from the 1960s, James Francis Gill has been regarded as one of the founders of American Pop Art. Without a fixed association in the sense of a group of artists, he and his American contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg
developed a style of art that saw itself as a counter-movement to American abstract expressionism and is now generally referred to as Pop Art.
The gallery owner Felix Landau, who initially represented classical positions with Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele in his gallery in Los Angeles, was partly responsible for James Francis Gill’s stable ranking among the top 20 artists in the USA between 1962 and 1975. Immediately after the death of Marilyn Monroe in August 1962, James Francis Gill painted the triptych Marilyn, which became part of the MOMA collection after just one exhibition in New York in November 1962. Another highlight
in the young painter’s career followed in 1967 with the group exhibition of the Who’s Who of American Pop Art artists at the Sao Paulo Bienal.
James Francis Gill went on to enjoy several successful years with major exhibitions.
During the period of the 60s and 70s, Gill was a regular and equal part of joint exhibitions at MoMA with the other big names of the time such as Picasso, Matisse, Leger etc.
Another highlight of his career was his work being featured by “life” magazine
covers. Despite his generally acclaimed and recognisable works related to pop culture, the artist has some others which are gravitating to a more political and critical theme.
In 1971, Felix Landau, who had become an iconic art dealer in the USA, closed his galleries in New York and Los Angeles and moved to Europe. James Francis Gill also turned his back on the hype surrounding Pop Art in 1972 and withdrew from the art
world.
He dedicated himself to teaching and later to architecture. He continued to paint in private. James Francis Gill’s comeback began at the turn of the millennium with a feature article in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Art Magazine.
A short time later, our friend Ted Bauer, owner and founder of Premium Modern Art, was involved in the liquidation of Felix Landau’s estate and learned about James Francis Gill. As Bauer became fascinated by Gill’s art, he intended to contact the artist. Once successful, Bauer and Gill developed a trust relationship that led to Ted
Bauer taking over the artist’s management in 2012.
Numerous exhibitions followed worldwide. The new exhibition “The Marilyn Pictures” is now the third appearance in Regensburg. We are very pleased to welcome James
Francis Gill on October 17, 2023.