The Night Vigil (Primary Title)
Joan Brown, American, 1938 - 1990 (Artist)
The self-portrait is really an inquiry, an introspective process of asking myself where am I coming from. —Joan Brown
Brown was a second-generation member of the Bay Area Figurative School—a movement of San Francisco-area artists that included Richard Diebenkorn, David Parks, and Wayne Thiebaud. The movement, which started in the 1950s, abandoned the prevailing style of Abstract Expressionism.
Brown’s bright colors, fantastical imagery, and personal symbolism were based in real and imagined events in her life. In the late ’70s, increasingly interested in spirituality, she became an adherent of Sathya Sai Baba and traveled often to India. The sacred cow, veiled figure with forehead bindi, and Sanskrit text about male/female duality reflect these interests, while the figure’s mummy-like form and stiff frontal pose convey her interest in Egyptian art.
The Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation Collection of Late 20th Century Art, The Atheneaum, Alexandria, VA, May 7 – June 6, 1985
Joan Brown: Indian Paintings and Constructions. Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, September 26 – October 31, 1981
[1] Purchased from Allan Frumkin, November 1, 1981.
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