James Brooks was an American painter known for his gestural abstractions of calligraphic forms and rich colors. Partly inspired by his friendship with Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Brooks’s work evolved through an interest in the unconscious as well as experiments with collage. Born on October 18, 1906 in St. Louis, MI, his family moved to Dallas in 1916, where he later attended the Southern Methodist University. Relocating to New York in 1926, he studied under Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League, and later worked as a muralist for the WPA alongside Pollock and Philip Guston. His mural Flight (1942), was made for the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, it is notably the largest WPA mural ever produced. Brooks...