12 Facts About James Surls

James Arthur Surls was born on 1943 and is an American modernist artist and educator, known for his large sculptures.

James Surls founded the Lawndale Alternative Arts Space at the University of Houston in the 1970s.

James Arthur Surls was born April 19,1943, in Terrell, Texas.

James Surls's father Joe William Surls was a carpenter and a cattle breeder.

James Surls was raised in Malakoff, Texas, and spend much of his childhood helping his dad with chopping wood and building wooden structures.

James Surls continued his studies and received a MFA degree in 1968 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he studied sculpture under Julius Schmidt.

James Surls taught art at Southern Methodist University, and University of Houston.

Students of James Surls included artists Mary Jenewein, Bernard Brunon, Peter McClennan, Robert Graham, Mark Diamond, Robert McCoy, Chris Huestis, Diane Falkenhagen, Donald Woodman, and others.

James Surls is best known for large sculptures that are roughly hewn and derive much of their power from a close connection to nature and raw materials.

James Surls has his work in various public museum collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Cranbrook Art Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fred Jones Jr.

James Surls has three daughters from his first marriage to Martha Ann Gebhart from 1965 to 1972.

James Surls's third marriage was in 1978 to Charmaine Locke in Liberty, Texas, she was a former student of his at Southern Methodist University.