6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Chicago imagist likeable by everyone., January 4, 2005
This review is from: Roger Brown, a Different Dimension (Paperback)
The production is an attractive one. The book is tall and narrow. The cover features a photograph of Roger Brown's sculpture of a pyramid-like structure (Processional Pyramid), with his usual assemblage of silhouette figures arrayed around it (waiting in line). The cover pyramid is raised, i.e., so that you can run your fingers over it and detect the eight stories of the pyramid building. From page 1 to 47, one finds a nicely written biography, supplemented with black and white photos of Roger Brown as a child, and high quality photos of his adult art work. Then, to page 82, one finds beautifully reproduced color photographs of Roger Brown's sculptural art works. For example, one finds his painted irons (I have done a Roger Brown painted iron, using a second hand iron, and enamels. It was great fun. Any Sunday painter can do it.) Also found are the usual Roger Brown western landscapes (but associated with a row of pottery to give the painting a sculptural quality), mask buldings, such as a waitress' mask building festooned with fastened forks and spoons (Mask for a Waitress), a mask for a corporate executive comprising a hinged sculpture of a skyscraper (Mask for the Chairman of the Board). The rows of pottery appear to be attached to a platform, where the platform is connected to the picture frame.
My favorite Roger Brown book is Roger Brown, by Mitchell Douglass Kahan, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (1980). But it is out of print. It contains paintings of a swamp (Bayou La Batre), mid-western thunderstorms (e.g., Thunderhead), rolling mid-western hills (Misty Morning), flat mid-western plains (Oklahoma is O.K.), and a forest of cut down trees (Lewis and Clark Trail). Misty Morning is one of the most sensuous paintings committed to canvas, and features an array of some 15 hills, one visible winding road, and ten sets of high beams from invisible trucks, the beams penetrating the mist. In the foreground, the hills are dark, while in the background, the hills are washed out and abundantly misty. Lewis and Clark Trail has a sculptural component. Affixed at the bottom of the painting is a platform, while the platform supports a row of actual tree stumps.
Really, Roger Brown deserves a comprehensive hardcover book featuring his paintings and quasi-sculptural works, e.g., masks and steam irons.
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