Roger Brown (artist)
| Roger Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Roger Brown December 10, 1941 Hamilton, Alabama |
| Died | November 22, 1997 (aged 55) Atlanta, Georgia |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Education | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Chicago Imagists |
Roger Brown (1941–1997) was an American artist and painter. Often associated with the Chicago Imagist school, he was internationally known for his distinctive painting style and shrewd social commentaries on politics, religion, and art.
Roger Brown was born on December 10, 1941, and raised in Hamilton and Opelika, Alabama. He was described in his formative years as a creative child, an inclination his parents are said to have encouraged. Brown took art classes from second to ninth grade, and won first prize in a statewide poster competition in tenth grade.
After high school Brown left the South. Although he lived much of his adult life elsewhere, he maintained his connection to the region both in his artwork and research, and later with his plan to purchase the “Rock House” in Beulah, Alabama.
During childhood Brown was close with his grandparents, especially his great-grandmother, Mammy. This experience instilled an early interest in his family’s origins, later inspiring extensive research into his family’s genealogy. This research was expressed artistically in a number of paintings that track family relationships, most notably “Autobiography in the Shape of Alabama (Mammyʼs Door)” and in references to Elvis Presley, who was a distant cousin.
His upbringing in the southern United States also led to a deep interest in the material culture of the South, especially in folk art and hand made, functional objects. From his adolescent and teen years he took influences from the aesthetics of comics, theatre, architecture and interiors and streamlined Art Deco and machine-age design. Additionally, the influence of his religious upbringing in the independent, fundamentalist Church of Christ was formative and lasting.
While attending the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC) from 1962 to 1970, Brown was introduced to a range of art historical periods and genres, gravitating to Pre-Renaissance Italian art, Surrealism, American artists Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, and Georgia O’Keeffe, and the tribal art of many cultures. Painter Ray Yoshida and art historian Whitney Halstead, both professors at SAIC, also greatly influenced Brown’s practice. Both included folk, popular, and self-taught art within the scope of their teaching, genres which Brown sustained enthusiastic interest in throughout his life. Other influences stemming from Brown’s SAIC days include the legendary Maxwell Street market, antique and thrift stores, and amusement parks.
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