Roger Brown & Friends: In the Nineties

Roger Brown died on November 22, 1997. He was probably the most widely known and recognizable of the Chicago Imagists, a loosely affiliated group that came to the fore in the late 1960s and shared an interest in surrealism, popular culture, and the work of untrained artists. The Imagists all worked figuratively. Their work shared a personally expressive, dream-like quality, but stylistically each was unique.

Brown’s repetition of motifs to create pattern, brilliant but limited color often shrouded ominous darks, blacks and grays, and figures silhouetted by yellow light, all became part of his signature, emblematic style. Whether he used architecture in cityscapes, or in row upon row of suburban sprawl, or the stylized hills, clouds, plant and animal forms in her ever more complex landscapes, Brown’s paintings were always dazzling and powerful.

The exhibition was made possible with the permission of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, to which Brown bequeathed his estate.

The exhibition traveled to the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from March 22-April 17, 1998.