| Roger Brown | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | James Roger Brown |
| Born | 1941 |
| Died | 1997 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
| Movement | Chicago Imagists |
| Influenced by | Ray Yoshida |
Roger Brown (1941 – November 22, 1997, born in Hamilton, AL) was an American artist who was a member of the Chicago Imagists, a group in the 1960s and 1970s who turned to representational art. His paintings are owned by many of the most important art museums in the US.
He was born in Hamilton, Alabama and raised in Opelika. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1962 through 1963 as an undergraduate and 1964 through 1970 as a graduate.
Brown's first art show was with an artist group named "False Image". He credits one of his teachers at the Art Institute, Ray Yoshida, for his help. Ray helped him to, "put myself into my art", as Brown said. Brown's art has a comic-book style narrative, which is sometimes literally written underneath the image.[1]
Brown donated his three homes and collections to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His Chicago home exists as the Roger Brown Study Collection, a house museum, archive, and special collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His home in New Buffalo, Michigan, designed by his partner the late modernist architect George Veronda, acts as a faculty and staff retreat and is not open to the public. His home in La Conchita, California, designed by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, was sold by the school and its collection of art placed in storage. The Spartan Trailer that was on his property in La Conchita is currently on semi-permanent loan to the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.
The houses contain Brown's art collections, including artworks by many notable Chicago Imagists, naive or primitive art, Outsider art, found objects from flea markets, and Brown's original furniture and sketchbooks. Much of this art is arranged in the Salon style, where paintings, sculpture, and artifacts cover every conceivable surface area. This is the way that Brown lived with his art collection. The Study Collection, located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, is open to school groups, scholars, and the public by appointment.