Biography
James Hull (b. London, UK 1921 - d. London 1990) studied architectural design before World War II, during which he served in the Army, 1939–46, eventually becoming a toymaker and scenery designer. With the help of the art critic Herbert Read (1893-1968), Hull had his first exhibition in the Brook Street Gallery in 1949, then his reputation as a member of the avant-garde grew as he showed at Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, the Strickland Gallery, the Adrienne Resnick Gallery, and Whitford and Hughes. He painted the mural The Story of Coal for the Festival of Britain’s Dome of Discovery in 1951. He won a competition to design the interior of the Daily Mirror building, and he worked for the IPC publishing conglomerate until 1970. In the 1970s Hull moved to Ibiza in 1971 and travelled widely. He spent some time designing jewellery but concentrated again on painting in the 1980s. Hull showed also in Paris, Rome and New York.
After an idyllic sojourn in Ibiza he did a variety of designing jobs in several continents, returning to London in straitened circumstances in 1980. During the period before his death his reputation as a pioneer abstractionist was re-established with shows at the Camden Galleries and Whitford and Hughes. Hull was amongst the most innovative artists of the Post War period. His first paintings had been figurative and surrealis but by 1950 he had changed to a more abstract style using pure colour and basic geometrical shapes.