JAMES JUTHSTROM
(1925-2007)

Artwork

Westwood Gallery NYC exclusively represents the artwork and archive of James Juthstrom.

ARTWORK

To inquire regarding prices for paintings, drawings, or other works, and to purchase any of the artworks shown below, contact the gallery at info@westwoodgallery.com.

James Juthstrom © Westwood Gallery NYC.

1950s

In the early 1950s, James Juthstrom studied painting and life drawings at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. While his life drawings were showed only at the Brooklyn Museum, Juthstrom's landscapes from this period became widely celebrated, especially by Professor Bill Kienbusch (Modernist painter, 1914-1980) who described Juthstrom's work as 'very exciting, authentic, and with true conviction.' The landscape paintings landed Juthstrom his first solo exhibition at Gallery G, 200 East 59th Street, and his first critical review from The New York Times Sunday:

By contrast James Juthstrom's abstract landscapes at Gallery G are austere. Mostly they depict wide fields sliding up crookedly to a small band of sky at the top of the canvases. It is the view from an airplane banking over endless farm country, cut up into semi-geometrical earth-colored areas for variegated spring planting and reaching to the horizon. The sense of empty spaciousness of such landscapes is well conveyed.

- The New York Times Sunday, 1957

Painting of a landscape with emerald green forest, gray sky and warm gray hills

Painting of a landscape with vermillion sky, ochre and sienna hills, and green forest

Painting of a landscape with green trees, yellow hills, ochre land mass

Painting of a green silhouette projected against a vermillion full moon, in a green landscape

Painting of a fall landscape with yellow sky and a contrasting blue horizon line

Ink drawing of a nude woman seen from behind

1960 - 1975

Following his initial success in the 1950s, he found himself depleted, no longer able to paint. Instead, he traveled the country in 1961-62, taking in the radiance of the Hawaiian Islands, mountains of Southern California and highlands of the Southeast. When he returned to New York in 1965, Juthstrom leased the top floor of an abandoned, burned out brownstone building on Broome Street and West Broadway “as is.”

After moving into his new studio, Juthstrom moved away from his early representational landscapes to capturing the breadth of the city. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, his paintings began to reflect an abstracted skyline of SoHo, reducing the buildings outside of his loft to fields of color. Working in oil on board, Juthstrom formed rich cityscapes, drawing inspiration from the same movement as Richard Diebenkorn for his abstract Ocean Park paintings. During these years, he also became fascinated with astronomy, celestial bodies and earth plate tectonics.

Around 1972, Juthstrom was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, and his vision began to gradually deteriorate. Soon after, his paintings of fire escapes and brownstones evolved into intricate, patterned mazes overlaid with structural motifs, evoking the mystical style of Mark Tobey and the early Fauvist work of André Derain. The fire escape paintings series was completed in 1975, when Juthstrom fell off a ladder onto an open flat file drawer, as he attempted to paint the ceiling of his studio.

James Juthstrom © Westwood Gallery NYC.

Semi-abstract watercolor painting of a flower sundial an elaborate detailed background of red and blue small circles

Acrylic abstract painting of white, red and yellow lines on blue background, resembling fire escapes on buildings

Watercolor abstract painting with white lines resembling fire escapes on a façade, on a purple-green background

Acrylic abstract painting of white, red, blue, green lines on violet, red background, resembling fire escapes on buildings

Abstract watercolor of white, yellow, red, orange, green lines on a detailed violet background and a clock-like circle

Abstract watercolor painting of blue, red, green lines on a detailed violet background and a clock-like circle

Acrylic painting of two chimneys with white smoke, on a violet, red and pink background

Gel ink drawing of red, blue, yellow, orange lines on a detailed violet background

Acrylic semi-abstract painting of roofs with chimneys and black smoke, on a background of red, yellow and violet sky

Watercolor painting of white lines on a detailed green and violet background and a red circle

Detail of still life from an acrylic painting of white and red lines on violet background, resembling fire escapes on buildings

Detail of white lines and background from an acrylic painting of white and red lines on violet

Detail of white and blue lines and background from an acrylic painting

Detail of white, orange, green and blue lines and background from an acrylic painting

1975 - 1980s

After Juthstrom returned from the hospital, he began purely abstract work, no longer choosing to capture a representation of SoHo's gradual gentrification. As he was confined to his loft, he created complex metaphysical paintings on shaped stretchers, spending countless hours painting mazes of colored circles.

The abstract paintings are meditative and rhythmic, calling on the viewer to connect on a subconscious, spiritual level. Juthstrom applied cryptic patterns and hidden formations, sometimes visible only under light, revealing his fascination with the cosmos, mathematical formulas and biology. His process was focused, spending months on one painting and sometimes over a year on larger work. Because he did not have a commercial outlet, his artwork was a pure form of creation.

James Juthstrom © Westwood Gallery NYC.

Abstract red acrylic on canvas painting with multiple underlying patterns created from minuscule circles

Abstract gold acrylic on canvas painting with multiple underlying patterns created from short parallel lines

Abstract dark violet acrylic on canvas painting with multiple underlying patterns created from minuscule circles

Two abstract dark violet acrylic on canvas paintings with multiple underlying patterns created from minuscule circles

Gold, yellow abstract acrylic on canvas painting on circular stretcher, combines flat yellow surfaces with detailed areas

Blue acrylic on canvas abstract painting, concentric & superimposed circles, red, white, blue, created from brush patterns

Violet abstract acrylic on canvas painting of red, violet, blue concentric circles, created from brush patterns

Acrylic on canvas painting of orange, brown, blue concentric circles, on a detailed background

Gold, yellow acrylic on canvas painting on circular stretcher, with concentric circles created from brushwork

Large acrylic on canvas painting, created from superimposed layers of blue, white, violet minuscule circles

Detail of acrylic on canvas painting, created from superimposed layers of blue, white, violet minuscule circles

Abstract watercolor on paper, gold minuscule circles layered

Abstract watercolor on paper, blue & violet parallel lines

Abstract watercolor on paper, blue and violet minuscule circles layered

1990s

By the 1990s, Juthstrom's vision worsened, and his friends and acquaintances he formed from his years at the Brooklyn School of Art and through Joe Cartuccio's Project for Living Artists in SoHo began to leave. Soon, he fell into a reclusive depression, and began painting the memories and spiritual reality he associated with his loft.

His figurative works are haunting and melancholic, depicting anonymous figures populating deserted indoor spaces throughout his Broome Street loft. Other motifs represented in his figurative works include floorboards, mirrors, birds, fisherman, angels, and the occasional noose.