James Weeks, born in 1922, was an important figure in the Bay Area figurative painter tradition, with contemporaries such as Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and David Park. Diverging from the placid sunny landscapes and non-objective abstract painting that characterized Bay Area painting of the time, Weeks instead chose to depict aspects of American life in a different light. Jazz musicians, cloudy nightclubs, and sailing races filled Weeks monumental canvases, forever freezing these action-filled moments in paint. From the sixties onward Weeks also worked as an educator at the University of California and Boston University.