Month: May 2021

Major Works

With a few minor exceptions, I have completed the cataloguing of Brown’s known and accounted for major paintings and works on paper. In order to be included in the catalogue there had to be either photographic evidence of the work or a record of its having been exhibited. There are some missing pieces of some important series (Autopsy Paintings # 3,#4, and#6, Ping B,C,D, and J; Portrait of Frankenstein and Lazarus #2 and 4 and Grimm #3,4,6,7,14,19,20,21,49,50,51,52,53,66,67,68,70,71,72,76,85,88,89, and 90) for which I have no photographs or any record of their having been exhibited. I will not list any of these works in the catalogue until I find evidence of their existence. In the case of the Grimm paintings especially I wonder if some of the missing were not painted over or otherwise re-worked and renamed. As businesses reopen I will be able to have his slide collection converted to digital prints. I am confident that at least some of the missing works will be found.

There are also source materials that I have not yet started to document. I will begin this work over the summer.

Catalogue of Existing and Accounted for Works:

Drawings and Works on Paper: 381 (144 drawings and sketches, 2 drawings (1986) for which photographs have not yet been found but which I know exist, 237 stills for the video project).

Paintings: Note: I count early panel paintings composed of multiple panels but intended as a single work as one painting. 483 (201 listenspiritlisten, 282 large scale works).

Ephemera and Juvenalia: 79 experiments, sketches, and studies and 24 items of juvenalia.

There are still a fair number of experiments and other ephemeral works to catalogue. There are also more pre-OCA works in his brother’s possession that need to be photographed and included. I will continue this part of the project but wanted to prioritize completing the catalogue of major works.

This month has been devoted to photographing and cataloguing the dozens of early drawings and studies discovered in brown’s Richmond Street studio. I have documented about 85 at present and have perhaps 20 left to document. I also discovered a series of very poignant sketches of men, never intended for exhibition, but too important to ignore. I will be posing those this month. Once those remaining drawings have been posted, the major work of archiving Brown’s output from 1980-2020 will be complete. There is cross-referencing between the record of exhibited works and the catalogue, and some detective work to be done to try to find photographs of works that I know exist but as of yet have no photographic record. (As I noted in my last update, this detective work will be aided by the slides I discovered. I am waiting for photo shops to reopen so that i can have them converted to digital prints for inclusion in the catalogue. I am confident that by the end of May I am confident that the archive will be nearly complete.

The process of deciding where to catalogue these early works (in the main catalogue or with the ephemera has prompted me to re-think the organization of those pages. I am thus panning a major re-organization of the catalogue. I am going to divide it into three pages: Paintings, Works on Paper, and Ephemera, Working Sketches, and Juvenalia. Most of the early drawings and studies will be moved to the Works on Paper page. Only obviously working sketches will remain on the Ephemera page. There are also some security upgrades to be performed on the site to make it both more secure and accessible. I will attend to those over the next two months.

I am always open to contributions. I myself am working on a series of essays that will cover the major periods of Brown’s career. The first, on his early drawings, will be posted in the next 2 or 3 weeks. If you have material to contribute, pleas contact me at jnoonan@uwindsor.ca