This month I completed the closure of Brown’s 401 Richmond Studio. It was an intensely sad moment for myself, my brother, and a few close friends and colleagues of Brown’s that were able to come to say good-bye. It was also, like all moments of closure, a time for joyous reminiscence and celebration.
As I noted in previous updates, the studio contained numerous drawings, sketches and experiments that I need to classify and post. The task is well underway but there are many dozens of items to pour over so it will take a few months to add all the new work. Since many were undated, I have to rely on conversations with his colleagues and my own eye to decide on dates. In the cases of undated studies for paintings whose dates I know the determination was easy; in other cases where I had to make a stylistic judgement the decision was more difficult. Although I know Brown’s work well, I am a philosopher, not an art historian, and not a philosopher much interested in problems of classification.
I have also had to make decisions as to whether to include these works in the main catalogue or in the ephemera section. My criteria were as follow. I included in the catalogue any drawing which: a) was a study for a known painting, and/or b) named and dated by Brown, and/or c) in my considered but imperfect judgement looked complete, formally and aesthetically. I classified as ephemera any work which was clearly : a) a quick sketch of an idea and/or b) an experimental working out of an idea but which was not exhibited because not yet fully realized.
In addition to the drawings, sketches, and experiments I also have Brown’s source materials: photos, medical books, etc. Once I have finished classifying and cataloguing the remaining art works I will post a selection of the source materials.
Finally, I also brought home 4 hard drives full of pictures of works in progress as well as dozens of slides of his major works. The slides are particularly important because they will allow me to fill in some blanks in the catalogue as well as to replace some of the black and white with colour photographs. I will have to get the slides converted to digital pictures so it might be a few months before missing paintings or better photos appear, but I hope that by summer I will have completed, with a few exceptions, the catalogue of Brown’s work from 1982-2020.
I once again close by inviting anyone who has any information about works not yet catalogued to contact me at: jnoonan@uwindsor.ca.