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James Stagg (1951-2001)
JAMES STAGG, the well-known San Francisco cityscape painter, died at age 49 on January 25, 2001.
Stagg's work, mostly oils of the streets of San Francisco, was widely known
in California and beyond. Stagg is credited with launching a cityscape school characterized by bold slashing strokes and brilliant color that captured the beauty and energy of the urban scene, but
always with an edge. His work influenced a number of other artists in the
Bay Area and beyond.
Stagg burst onto the art scene in 1988 when he painted the Grand Tour, a
portfolio of city scenes, for San Francisco Focus magazine. For several
years after that, a new original Stagg was published alongside the
magazine's lead restaurant review each month.
When Bradley Ogden opened One Market Restaurant in San Francisco in the early 1990s, he
commissioned Stagg to produce a painting for his new venture. After tagging
along on Ogden's early-morning trips to the food markets, Stagg painted the
work that hangs in the bar at One Market.
Stagg had numerous exhibitions and was one of the Bay Area's best-known and
most successful artists. Movie-star handsome and a bit shy, he was always a
favorite at the annual open studios weekend at Hunter's Point, where he
maintained a studio for more than a decade.
Stagg suffered a brain seizure in August 1999 and was in a coma until
his death two years later at his home in Sausalito.
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