James Penney was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1910. He graduated from the University of Kansas where he had studied with Albert Bloch, Karl Mattern and Raymond Eastwood. In 1931 he left Kansas for New York to study at the Art Student League where he worked on a number of murals in New York City and Missouri. He taught at Hunter College, Connecticut Junior College and Bennington College during the fourties, and was also Vice-President of the Art Student League and of the American Fine Arts Society. His first exhibition at Kraushaar Galleries was held in 1945, the beginning of their long association.
In 1948 he moved to Utica, NY to teach at the School of Art of the Munson-William-Proctor Institute. During the fifties he won a number of awards, including a Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fellowship to Yaddo. He was a visiting professor of art at Vassar College, and by this time had joined the faculty of Hamilton College where he remained until his retirement in 1976.
In later years, he continued his interest in mural painting and executed murals for Hamilton College and the Nebraska State Capitol winning a national competition. He was awarded another fellowship to Yaddo and Huber Grants for study abroad. Also, he was one of four artists commissioned by the Omaha National Bank to paint the Nebraska landscape for the collection of the Joslyn Museum. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and the Century Club. James Penney died in 1982.
(Source: James Penny Memorial Exhibition, September 19-October 13, 1984: Kraushaar Galleries)
