James Weeks

Bassoonist

Bassoonist by James Weeks is a small graphite drawing on paper depicting a seated musician playing the bassoon. Though known best for his paintings, Weeks was also an exceptional draughtsman, as demonstrated in this and similar works that feature musicians as subjects. Weeks was raised in a musical household, his mother was a classical pianist and his father was a well-known frontman. Though he ultimately became a visual artist, Weeks himself was also musical, and had a life-long interest in American jazz culture. He would often portray musicians playing their instrument in both drawings and paintings, capturing their aural energy in visual format. Diverging from the placid sunny landscapes and non-objective abstract painting that characterized Bay Area painting of the time, Weeks preferred to depict the more leisurely aspects of American life. Jazz musicians, cloudy nightclubs, and sailing races filled Weeks monumental canvases, celebrating the uniquely Northern Californian aspects of American culture.