Boswell, James, 1906-1971

James Boswell was born in New Zealand in 1906 and studied at the Elam School of Art in 1924 before moving to London where he was a student at the Royal College of Art from 1925 to 1929. He began exhibiting in London Galleries and with the London Group in 1927 and continued to do so until 1932 when he gave up painting. From 1932 when he joined the Communist Party he concentrated on graphic work, producing lithographs with James Fitton between 1933 and 1939. He was a founder member of the Artists' International Association and became Art Editor of 'Left Review'. From 1936-1941 and again from 1945-1947 he was Art Director for the Shell Petroleum Company and served in the Royal Army Medical Corp during the war years. He began to paint again after the war and started to exhibit his work again but also continued with his literary activities as Art Editor of 'Lilliput', 1947-1950 and Editor of the house journal of J Sainsbury Ltd. Boswell exhibited at the Royal Academy 1945-1960 and with the London Group and the Paris Salon. During the 1950's his work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism. Boswell died in 1971.

From the guide to the Seventy five drawings and sketchbooks by James Boswell, 1938-1959, (Tate Archive)