Ephemera: Unfinished Works, Sketches, Studies, Experiments, 1981-2020.
Unfinished Work, 2020
These five paintings were unfinished at the time of Brown’s death. His work had been slowed by knee trouble in the months before he died. The four small paintings were being prepared for a show at the Karl Oskar Gallery, Berlin. The larger painting is barely begun, but I include it because it offers insight in to the free and random way in which Brown began his paintings.
(2020)
Oil on Wood
appx. 24×18
(2020)
Oil on Wood
appx. 24×18
(2020)
Oil on Wood
appx. 24×18
(2020)
Oil on Wood
appx. 24×18
(2020)
Oil on Wood,
appx. 72×60
Circa 2012
Experiments for Wire Service Series
The Wire Service Series (see Catalogue Page) were experiments in paint spattered photo collages. The photos were taken from the many newspapers strewn about the Richmond Street studio. Amongst his folders I found one labelled “Newspaper Covered in Paint.” There was no date, but sixteen of these photographs were glued onto paper in what seems to be an early experiment that led eventually to the Wire Service Series (see the Catalogue Page). I have no definitive evidence that the works below are experiments that convinced him to proceed with the Wire Service series, but the resemblance is most likely not accidental. I include only those photographs that were mounted on paper or clearly deliberately worked up by Brown. I may display a selection of the unmounted pieces in a future section devoted to the source materials from which Brown worked.
(circa 2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
9×6.75
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo
5×5
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
11.25×8.75
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
8.75×8.75
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
9.5×8.5
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
8×9
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
9×7.5
(2012)
Scan of paper mounted photo collage
8.5×11
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
6.5×10
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
7×12.75
(2012)
Scan of oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
11×8.5
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
7.75×7
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
6.5×11
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo
7.5×5.5
(2012)
Oil on newspaper photo mounted on paper
8.75×10
2006-2007
(c.2006-2007)
Pencil on paper
8.5×8.25
This drawing was found with the unexhibited Portraits of Men series. The series can be found on the Works on Paper page. I have classified this drawing and the next three as ephemera because they are less worked, less fully realized, then the rest of the sketches in the series.
(c.2006-2007)
Pencil on paper
8.5×8.25
(c.2006-2007)
Pencil on paper
8.5×8.25
(c.2006-2007)
Pencil on paper
8.5×8.25
2006
(circa 2006)
Oil on Paper
12×12 (appx)
I hesitated to include this untitled work when I first found it amongst his works on paper because it looks rather unlike anything else in his oeuvre. However, I changed my mind when I discovered a photograph of it on a CD with paintings from 2006. I have included it under Ephemera and not Works on Paper because it strikes me as experimental rather than a fully realized piece.
2000
(circa 2000)
Graphite, Grease Pencil, Conte on Paper,
15.5x 7.25 (found cut into two pieces).
The dating is uncertain and based upon a ‘0’ visible on the back where Brown has signed it. The entire inscription is not visible because the original has been cut into pieces (probably for collages he was working on in the last year of his life).
(c.2000)
Grease Pencil and Gouache on Paper
I date this collage c.2000 for the same reason as the picture above.
(c.2000)
Grease Pencil on Paper
(c.2000)
Grease Pencil on Paper)
(c.2000)
Grease Pencil on paper
(circa 2000)
Oil on Paper
12,5 x9.5
This painting was found in the same folder as the Portraits of Men (2000-2007). I decided to list it as Ephemera because it struck me as an experiment with the cross-hatch brush technique. Although I included the other portrait sketches under Works on paper, they have an aesthetic and psychology unity this piece lacks.
Circa 1999
The following pieces are clearly early attempts at mastering the technique of gluing pain chips swept up from his studio floor onto paper to form a coherent image that he used to create the Yard series. I have not included them in the Catalogue because they were not framed or shown.
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(c. 1999)
Mixed Media on Paper
30×20.5
(circa 1999?)
Oil on Wood,
38×18.
This painting seems to be an experiment. I date it provisionally to 1999 because the amount of paint piled onto the wood reminds me of the work of Eugene LaRoy. Brown was impressed by LaRoy’s technique after seeing his show at the Power Plant in Toronto in 1999. But my dating is pure speculation
1997
(circa 1997)
Oil on Paper
30×20.5
This is a detail of the larger work. Brown wrote “Ping” on the bottom of the paper (not pictured) but this piece was never exhibited. It may be an early version of the images that would later form the Ping series.
(circa 1997)
Oil on paper
30×20.5 This piece was found in the same drawer as the other Ping in this section. I assume it was part of the same early experiments that led ultimately to the Ping series.
Untitled (Ping-like image)
(circa 1997)
Oil on Masonite
30×20.5
(circa 1997)
Oil on paper
30×20.5
(circa 1997)
Oil on Paper
18×28.5
(circa 1997)
Oil on Paper
23×20.5 (The five pieces following “Ping” were was found in the same drawer and bear enough of a resemblance that I have decided to catalogue them as experiments that led to the Ping series).
(circa 1997)
Grease Pencil, Oil, Gouache on Paper 30.25×22
I am not at all confident with this date. The sketch of the face looks earlier, the central section strikes me as Ping-like, so I have dated it from the same period as the other Ping drawings.
1989-90
(circa 1989-90)
Graphite on Paper
7.5×6.25
The dating is uncertain and is based on what I regard as a strong similarity to the face in the Study for Ten Portraits of Men Who For Some reason Feel Successful (See Works on Paper). It was found with works dating from 2000-2007, but bears much less resemblance to them (see Portraits of Men, 2000-2007, Works on Paper).
(1989-90)
Graphite on Paper
6.25×7.5
This drawing was found in the same folder as the one above, and the same concerns about dating apply.
1986
(1986)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper 19×13
(sketched on back of Suit Coat)
(circa 1986)
Graphite on Paper
24×18
(c.1986)
Graphite on Paper
(c.1986)
Grease Pencil on Paper
1985
(1985)
Pencil on paper
23×16.5
(1985)
Pencil on Paper
24×23
(circa 1985)
Pencil on paper
19.5×19
(1985)
Pencil on Paper
35×25.25
(1985)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper
13×15
(circa 1985)
Grease Pencil on Paper
26×20
(circa 1985)
Graphite on Paper
26×20
(c. 1985)
Graphite on Paper
26×20
(c.1985)
Grease Pencil on Paper
(c.1985)
Grease Pencil on Paper
(c.1985)
Grease Pencil on Paper
(c.1985)
Grease Pencil on Paper
(Actual background colour is white. The pink hue is an artifact of the scanning of the slide).
1984
(1984)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper
19×23
(1984)
Grease Pencil on Paper
16×23
(1984)
Graphite on Paper
18.5×23
(1984)
Graphite on Paper
18.5×23
(1984)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper
24×18
(1984)
Graphite on Paper
24×18
(circa 1984)
Grease Pencil and Oil on Paper
10×10.5
The dating is speculative, but it was found amidst drawings from 1984
(circa 1984)
Pen on Paper
10×10.5
Back of the previous drawing
(circa 1984)
Graphite on Paper
9×12
(circa 1984)
Pencil, Grease Pencil, and Oil on Paper
24x 18
(1984)
Grease Pencil on Paper
23×19
(1984)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper
23×16.75
(circa 1984)
Graphite on Paper
26×30
(1984)
Graphite on Paper
13.5×9.75
(circa 1984)
Graphite and Grease Pencil on Paper
23×12.5
(1984)
Graphite on Paper
13.5x 9.75
1983
(circa 1983)
Pencil on Paper
18×24
(circa 1983)
Graphite on Paper
18.25×24
(circa 1983)
Graphite on Paper
24×18.25
(circa 1983)
Grease Pencil on Paper
24×18.25
(circa 1983)
Graphite, Grease Pencil on Paper
23×35
(circa 1983)
Pencil, Grease Pencil on Paper
23×35
(1983)
Grease Pencil, Pencil on Paper
20.5×28
(1983)
Grease pencil on Paper
20.5×28 (on the back of man and Horse and Two Figures Kissing)
(Circa 1983)
Graphite on Paper
8.75×9.5
1981
(1981)
Graphite
14×12.25
(circa 1981)
Graphite on Paper
18.5×13.5
1980
Early Work, Pre-OCA (circa 1975-1976)
(c.1975)
(1975)
Oil on canvas
25.75 x 19.75
Student Paintings (OCA, 1978-1981)
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood.
(circa 1978-1981)
Oil on Paper
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Paper
(c.1978-1981)
Oil on Wood
(circa 1978-1981)
Graphite, Crayon
14×17
(circa 1978-1981)
Grease Pencil on Paper
13.5×10
(c. 1978-81)
Oil on Wood.
(c. 1978-1981)
Oil on Masonite
(c. 1978-1981)
Pencil and Oil on Paper.
(c.1978-81)
Pencil and Water Colour on Paper
(circa 1978-1981)
Oil on Masonite
Zines
Music
Music was as important to Brown as visual arts. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of twentieth century pop and rock music and was in bands from his teenage years in Sudbury (The Tempests) through art school and into his late twenties. Ronwrong (named after a magazine published in 1917 by Marcel Duchamps, Henri Pierre Roche and Beatrice Wood) was formed by Brown with his fellow OCA student Marc DeGuerre. The lyrics (by DeGuerre) strike themes that resonate with the pre-occupations of Brown’s early-mid 1980’s drawing and paintings: the suffering and struggles of labouring bodies. The tracks below are from a show at the Woodshed, Guelph, probably from 1982, when Brown was a student at the University of Guelph. Play as loud as possible.
