1990s he had begun documenting the city, painting many of his best known works. In his signature rendering of "negative social spaces -- bus stops, empty billboards, the dry trough of the L.A. River, the concrete islands between freeway onramps," the artist achieved an unlikely marriage between the "lurid sublimity of California landscape tradition" and "postindustrial apocalyptic melancholy.". Collections, awards and reputation Doolin's art work is included in many public and corporate collections and is also represented in numerous books on America." He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1981, 1986, and 1992. Throughout his career, Doolin struggled against "the L.A. art establishment's prejudice against pictorialism and regionalism," but he eventually earned the respect of critics, collectors and fellow artists. Australian writer Peter Carey noted that Doolin was a "risk-taker, [whose] choice of subject matter was often unfashionable." Upon Doolin's death, artist Carl Cheng described him as a West Coast Edward Hopper, capturing "both the beauty and the alienation of our time in Los Angeles." After his masterful, incandescent painting Psychic headlined the traveling exhibition "Representing L.A.," (2000–2002) and the San Jose Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work in 2001, his reputation as a major Los Angeles artist solidified. References External links James Doolin biography & selected exhibitions 1932 births 2002 deaths American contemporary artists University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni