Roger Brown (1941-1997) was a leading member of the Chicago Imagist group, who created bold canvases and sculptural objects that explore America in the postwar era. His work is personal, provocative, and political, often a commentary on current events and contemporary attitudes delivered with a strong dose of irony and a wry sense of humor. He celebrated the vernacular, mining popular culture for its truths and contradictions, and focused on a range of themes from urban isolation, alienation, and sexual intrigue to natural disasters, human tragedy, and weather patterns.
James Roger Brown was born on December 10, 1941 and raised in Hamilton and Opelika, Alabama. His interest in art emerged at an early age, and his parents encouraged his talents. Growing up, he developed a deep appreciation of the material culture of the South, especially folk art and handmade, functional objects. In his adolescent and teen years, he was also influenced by the aesthetic of comic strips, theater architecture and interiors, and streamlined Art Deco and machine-age design.
Brown’s religious upbringing in the independent, fundamentalist Church of Christ was formative and lasting. After briefly contemplating the idea of becoming a preacher, he decided to study art instead, and he moved to Chicago in 1962. He studied at the American Academy of Art and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was drawn to a wide range of art historical periods and genres, particularly Surrealism, early Italian Renaissance painting, non-western art, and American artists Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Brown exhibited extensively throughout his life and was represented by the Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago and New York from 1970 to 1997. His art is included in many important museum collections such as those of The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna. Major traveling retrospectives of his work were organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama in 1980; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC in 1987; and Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University, Alabama in 2007. The latter exhibition traveled to American University, Washington, DC, and the University of New Orleans, Louisiana in 2008.
Source: DC Moore Gallery