Kim James Collection
In the year 2000 I was fortunate enough to meet the former artist Kim James in his farm house in Northamptonshire. He had had a soaring career throughout the late 50’s and 60’s, exhibiting alongside such luminaries as Moore, Frink and Hepworth in some of the top galleries of the time. Although he knew his art to be good, in 1969 he became disillusioned with the art scene and left it to pursue a new career, initially in cybernetics and he then went on to pioneer art in psychotherapy. His whole collection of sculptures remained unseen in his attic, caked in dust, for 31 years until I walked through his door and my eyes widened at what I was to see in his attic.
Geometric art with red, white, blue, yellow, and black rectangles, featuring text about Kim James' sculpture collection.
Bronze sculpture titled 'Carole I' in a cubist style, dating back to 1966, on a geometric background with information about its material, dimensions, and price.
Poster featuring a bronze sculpture called 'Carole II' by KJ, on a slate base, with dimensions H13.5" x W6", created in 1966, edition 9. Text describes its futurist cubism style and the historical context of anatomy in art education. Price listed as £8,000 + Vat. Background inspired by Mondrian-style design.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled 'Carole III' depicting a female head, displayed on a perspex base. Design features geometric shapes and interlocking panels with blue, red, white, and gold accents. Artwork by unknown artist, presented with a grid-like border.
Cubist-style bronze sculpture titled "Women Like Flowers I" against a geometric background. The piece is described as H21" x W11", edition 9, from 1962. It symbolizes women as flowers, priced at £9,500 + VAT.
Bronze sculpture of a woman's head on a stone base, styled like a classic Roman bust, displayed in a grid pattern design inspired by Piet Mondrian. Text includes details such as the artist's name, year 1960, edition 9, and the price of £7,500 plus VAT.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled 'Women Like Flowers II' by Jankel Adler, featuring geometric shapes and curves. Accompanied by text describing the artwork's dimensions, edition, and price.
"Women Like Flowers III" bronze sculpture displayed, featuring abstract representation of a female nude figure. Includes description and pricing information, set on a Mondrian-style background.
Kim James
“I would never start a piece of work with an idea which would carry through to the end, nor was I ever taken by a particular form of bone or wood which inspired me, as Moore or Hepworth were. Instead I nearly always started with something, usually in the 50’s and 60’s a piece of clay. I would spend ages just cutting and squeezing it with a glazed air, almost catatonic, deaf to whatever went on or sometimes thinking about something entirely beside the point, frequently beautiful women of whom I seemed to know an awful lot. A lot of my work was expressed as a tribute to beautiful women.”
Abstract bronze sculpture titled 'Power Tool' on a Perspex base, measuring 15.5 inches high and 7 inches wide, created in 1964. Accompanied by text about Cubist and Communist influences, priced at £7,000 plus VAT.
Bronze torso sculpture on slate base, described in abstract grid pattern. Text reads "Torso," details about size, year (1955), edition (Ed. 12), and price (£7,000 + VAT)."
Small Reclining Figure bronze sculpture with dimensions 3.5 inches high and 13 inches wide, created in 1963 as edition 12. The sculpture represents a female nude lying on her side, with zigzag legs and curled hair, priced at £5,500 plus VAT.
Bronze sculpture titled 'Small Crouching Figure' on display, with a description about its creation date, dimensions, and price. The artwork was originally made for a private client's house in Chelsea.
Bronze plaque sculpture titled "Lovers Plaque," depicting an amorously entwined couple, mounted on a wooden base. Dimensions are 19 inches high and labeled as edition 7, priced at £6,500 plus VAT.
Abstraction of a bronze sculpture titled 'Large Reclining Figure' from 1967, depicting a female nude half-seated with bent, crossed legs. Dimensions are H14.5" x W20.5". The design is set against a Mondrian-style background with primary colors and black lines. Priced at £13,000 + VAT.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled 'Girl Undressing.'
"Girl Turning in a Room" sculpture, bronze on Portland stone base, represents a female nude in high heels. Two views of the sculpture are placed on a geometric background with a price and description.
Bronze sculpture titled "Girl in an Armchair" depicting an abstract female figure in a flowing dress, sitting in a spindle-back armchair. Created in 1968, edition number 9. Sculpture dimensions are 32 inches high by 20 inches wide. Priced at £23,500 plus VAT.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled 'Jennifer II' with geometric shapes, part of a series inspired by Canova’s 'Three Graces.' Height 71.5 inches, created in 1966, edition 7.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled "Dynamo Maker" depicting a worker crouching at a machine, reflecting a "Man and Machine" Communist theme from the mid-1960s. The background features a Mondrian-style design with rectangles of blue, yellow, and red.
Bronze sculpture titled "Machine Mender" depicting a worker lying on their side, representative of the "Man and Machine" communist theme, set against a Mondrian-style graphic background with descriptive text.
"Lathe Maker" sculpture by Kim James from 1964, featuring abstract geometric forms representing a worker at a workbench. The sculpture is made of aluminum and presented with pricing and edition details. The design is framed by Mondrian-style blocks in blue, yellow, and white.
Abstract plaster panel artwork titled 'Les Amants,' featuring geometric figures symbolizing a man playing guitar and a woman. Displayed in a modern frame and described as part of a fire surround. Created in 1962, offered at £3,200 plus VAT.
Bas-relief sculpture titled 'Ram' in a modern frame, featuring abstract design. Text explains it was meant for a church ceiling in London’s East End and provides dimensions, price, and edition details.
An art display featuring a plaster relief titled "Adam and Eve" with abstract forms in a wooden frame. It was intended for a church ceiling in London's East End redesigned after a fire. The panel is made with clay slip and measures 36 inches by 48 inches. It is priced at £3,200 plus VAT. The piece was created in 1960 and is sold as an unlimited edition.
Kim James
British, 1928 - 2011
‘I would never start a piece of work with an idea which would carry through to the end, nor was I ever taken by a particular form of bone or wood which inspired me, as Moore or Hepworth were. Instead I nearly always started with something, usually in the 50’s and 60’s a piece of clay. I would spend ages just cutting and squeezing it with a glazed air, almost catatonic, deaf to whatever went on or sometimes thinking about something entirely beside the point, frequently beautiful women of whom I seemed to know an awful lot. A lot of my work was expressed as a tribute to beautiful women.’
Kim James was one of Britain’s most interesting young sculptors of the 1950s and 1960s with an international following. At Borough Polytechnic art school he attended David Bomberg’s drawing classes whose students at the time included Frank Auerbach, and Leon Kossoff. It was Bomberg’s futurist work which Bronze was to be his major influence. Following his move from figurative art with pieces like ‘Torso’ and many others another influence which ran alongside his interest in futurism was the portraiture of Jacob Epstein. This came about through meeting Deborah Garman who was the niece of Lady Epstein. Deborah was a communist and it was to be through her that James joined The Young Communist League. After several years this culminated in him sitting on the Cultural sub-committee of the British Communist Party which was to be his “chief source of adventure” throughout the formative years of his life. On completion of his art studies he went to Paris where he met his first wife, Madeleine Hopfeld. It was she who introduced him to the leading French intellectuals, writers and painters of 1950s, including Fernand Léger, Jean-Paul Satre and André Fougeron
On returning from Paris in 1962 he started teaching at Camberwell School of Art, where he remained until 1974. Having gained an extraor- dinary insight into the cubist and futurist movements, his work attracted the attention of many London galleries including the Grosvenor Gallery, Wildenstein Gallery and the Hanover Gallery, the latter being London’s leading con- temporary art gallery for over twenty years where the careers of many highly acclaimed artists were launched, most notably that of Francis Bacon. In 1966 the Hanover Gallery held a one man show of Kim James’ works, followed in 1968 by a show at the Galerie Vercamer in Paris, the Charles Byron Gallery in New York, The Salon des Jeunes Sculpteurs in the grounds of the Musée Rodin and The Royal Academy in London. In 1969 he was chosen as one of a group of artists, headed by Henry Moore, to represent Great Britain at the Middelheim Sculpture Biennale in Belgium.
Born in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, James was born into a strict Baptist family and despite his rejection of organised religion at an early age, the bible was to represent a powerful source of inspiration. In 1960 Kim James was commissioned by Anthony Lewis to make a very large relief panel in the Church of St Matthew in Bethnal Green and to decorate the ceilings of two churches in Middlesex. The plaster reliefs ‘Dove’, ‘Angel’, ‘Susannah’, ‘Ram’ and ‘Adam and Eve’ exhibited here are motifs from these ceilings. At the same time James created ‘Madeleine Hopfeld’ and ‘Les Amants’, the latter being influenced by a work that Léger had created some years earlier.
Word of the church ceilings, which James cites as one of his key pieces over the period of 1956–1966, lead to a commission in 1962 from the Hoveringham Gravel Company in Nottinghamshire to design the entrance ceilings of their new office; also, ‘The Mammoth’, which remained as Britain’s largest steel sculpture until the construction of Anthony Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’ in 1998. ‘The Mammoth’ now resides on the campus of Nottingham Trent University. The immense solid aluminium panel named ‘Excavator’ is the original cast commissioned by Erica Brausen for the one man show at the Hanover Gallery. Two years spent working on steel sculptures and the decorated ceilings with their references to industry turned his attention to the strength of industrial motifs. The ‘Man and Machine’ series, which included works such as ‘Power Tool’, ‘Machine Mender’, ‘Lathe Maker’ and ‘Dynamo Maker’ were shown at the Hanover Gallery in 1966 alongside his romantic expressionist Bronze pieces such as ‘Women like Flowers’ and ‘Jennifer’. ‘Jennifer’ was later chosen for the Middelheim Biennale in 1969. After the exhibition at the Royal Academy James made a series of works which included ‘Girl Turning in a Room’, ‘Girl Undressing’, ‘Girl in an Armchair’ and ‘Large Reclining Woman’ which were to be his last works. Citing disenchantment with the art world, just as he had reached his peak, James decided to pursue an academic life researching the use of art in psychotherapy for the next 20 years.
Working together over five years from 2001 to 2006, Alex von Moltke and Kim James painstakingly tracked down collectors as well as unearthed in James’ attic pieces or original casts in plaster which were never completed in bronze.
Artwork titled "Dove" displayed in a modern frame, representing a clay slip plaster panel intended for a church ceiling redesign in London's East End. Dimensions are 36 inches by 48 inches with a frame. Created in 1962 as an unlimited edition.
Relief sculpture of a ram in a wooden frame, designed for a church ceiling in London’s East End. Priced at £3,200 plus VAT. Plaster panel with clay slip, dimensions 48" x 36", created in 1962, unlimited edition.
A plaster panel entitled "Angel" depicting an abstract relief of a reclining figure. The artwork is designed to adorn a church ceiling, measures 48x36 inches, and has a modern molded gessoed frame. Created in 1960, it's part of an unlimited edition. Price noted is £3,200 plus VAT.
"Adam and Eve" plaster panel sculpture with a clay slip in a modern gessoed frame, designed for a church ceiling in London's East End. Created in 1960, measuring 36 inches by 48 inches, priced at £3,200 plus VAT."
Abstract artwork titled 'Composition IV,' featuring a cubist landscape in relief behind an artist's farmhouse in Northamptonshire, displayed with prices and details about materials and editions.
Abstract bronze sculpture titled "Seated Nude," showcasing various angles. It is a 1953 piece, 7 inches high and 8 inches wide, part of an early collection before a transition to semi-abstraction. Edition 12, priced at £4,500 plus VAT.
Collage of newspaper clippings and a gallery invitation from the Hanover Gallery featuring Kim James' sculpture exhibition, dated 1960s.
Newspaper clipping titled 'Hidden treasure' about an art discovery by Amanda Constance, featuring a photo of a sculpture and a portrait of a man.
Image of a sculptural artwork titled 'Alternative Patinations' showcasing abstract, geometric figures with a text description about using lacquer to preserve the sculpture's finish.