{"title":"Roger Brown","description":"\u003cp\u003eRoger Brown (1941–1997, Hamilton, Alabama) was an American painter whose practice from the late 1960s onwards developed a highly distinctive visual language of flattened, patterned landscapes, silhouetted figures, architectural forms and popular imagery rooted in the vernacular traditions of American folk art, theatre, advertising and the decorative arts. Studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brown emerged as one of the central figures of Chicago Imagism, the loose grouping of artists associated with the city’s art scene in the late 1960s and 1970s who shared a commitment to figurative, narrative and often darkly humorous imagery in deliberate opposition to the dominant abstraction of the New York art world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis paintings of the early 1970s — including the patterned landscape series that brought him to international attention — used repeated, rhythmic forms to create images of hypnotic visual intensity. Rows of undulating hills, waves, clouds and architectural elements were populated by tiny, isolated figures whose anonymity and repetition gave the work a quality simultaneously comic and melancholic. His solo exhibitions with Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago from 1971 onwards established his reputation, and his first European solo exhibition at Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, in 1974 marked the beginning of his international profile.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrown’s later work extended his visual vocabulary into increasingly complex social and political territory, incorporating imagery drawn from natural disaster, urban life, religion and American popular culture. His estate and studio are maintained as the Roger Brown Study Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is held in major collections including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"roger-brown-galerie-darthea-speyer-paris-1974","title":"ROGER BROWN — Roger Brown. Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, 1974","description":"\u003cp\u003eGalerie Darthea Speyer, 6 rue Jacques Callot, Paris, 26 September–31 October 1974. Opening 25 September. Original exhibition invitation. Colour and monochrome offset printing on card stock, 15.5 × 10.5 cm. Reproduction of one of Brown’s patterned landscapes to recto; unprinted verso.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good. Diagonal creasing at the upper corners, light surface rubbing, minor edge wear and gentle age toning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrown had completed his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1970 and held solo exhibitions with Phyllis Kind in 1971 and 1973. His flattened landscapes, architectural forms and isolated figures developed alongside the artists later grouped under Chicago Imagism, while retaining a distinctly personal mixture of vernacular design, theatre, popular imagery and social observation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Paris exhibition marked the first European presentation of Brown’s work. Galerie Darthea Speyer had opened at 6 rue Jacques Callot in 1968 and became an important point of entry for American artists into a European context. Its surviving records, including material relating to Brown, are now held by the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe invitation retains that transfer in compact form: a Chicago landscape placed within a Paris address, the artist’s name occupying the space above it. Printed for an exhibition lasting five weeks; retained for more than fifty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShips flat, securely backed and tracked from the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Galerie Darthea Speyer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54010359218514,"sku":"BROWN-DARTHEASPEY-INV-1974","price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Brown_Roger._Show_invite._1974.jpg?v=1784183651"}],"url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/collections\/roger-brown.oembed","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}