J. James Akston, 1970’s Mod Surrealist Day Glo Fluorescent Acrylic Painting J. James Akston, 1975

J. James Akston
Surrealism, Village scene (Mexico)
Acrylic on Board
Frame: 15 X 18
Image: 9 X 12

Joseph James Akston was a Polish American sculptor, painter, known for surrealist abstract painting and Aubusson (for Les Ateliers Pinton Frères, tapisserie, Aubusson) tapestry artist. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1898 he died in Palm Beach Florida in 1983. During the 1960s and ’70s the entrepreneur-artist James Joseph Akston adopted a unique Surreal Expressionist style in order to present his private primordial universe and lampoon its denizens, a ribald cast of animal creatures with human foibles. A successful industrialist, he began his career with General Motors foreign operations and then started his own business.
Intermittently he studied painting, first with Jerry Farnsworth in North Truro (Mass.) and then with Jose Clemente Orozco in Mexico. In the early 1960s Akston became publisher-editor of a group of art publications which included The Magazine Arts. Initially an abstract expressionist, Akston had one-man exhibitions at the New York Convention Center and the Corcoran Museum in Washington. Since 2015 the record price for this artist at auction is $12,575 USD for Spheres Aux Triangles Aubusson Tapestry, sold at Bonhams New York in 2019.

He was a Graduate of Georgetown University. He sat on the board of the Norton Museum.
Exhibitions
1976 Hokin Gallery
1966 Gallery 63 NYC
1960 Gallery 63 Rome , Italy

Select Public Collections
National Museum, Wshington DC
Boca Museum of Art
Whitney Museum of Art, NYC
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Museum of African Art Washington DC (Now part of Smithsonian Museum)

Bibliography: 1962 Art Voices Magazine: Editor and Chief
Beginning of the Beginning by J JAMES AKSTON
First Book of Pop Art
Akston: 25 Creative Years by Gordon Brown
Voyage to the Black Hole by Gordon Brown
Art Digest Newsletter, 1960s