Joan Brown exhibition celebrates her deeply intimate portraits
Throughout the years, Joan Brown's portraits offered an intimate glimpse into her world of art. Through painting, she crafted candid snapshots of loved ones that stripped away glitz to capture everyday beauty. Many works in the SFMOMA retrospective seem tailored as gentle souvenirs for family and friends. With subtle brushwork, Brown recalled fleeting moments and quiet details that composed a life. Her private diary entries in paint share nods and glances that speak volumes to those in the know. While some artists aimed to revolutionize, Brown refined portraiture as humble homage. With evident care, she marked places and people from her community. Brush in hand, Brown built an archive of warmth, recording memories between cuts to fit like patches in a quilt. Rather than grand gestures, her works of art offer windows into easy delights and connections. In portraying an inner circle, Brown highlights how the first moments beneath headlines ultimately shape our shared humanity. Her gift lies in refining profound intimacy from small, everyday graces.
The painter, whose retrospective traveled from SFMOMA to the Carnegie Museum, established her name in the Bay Area. Her prosperous impasto technique changed abstraction into visceral forms, occasionally with a subtle wink. Her early works gleam underneath layered oils, suggesting inner discovery below observable surfaces. "Thanksgiving Turkey" evokes classicism in a humorous depiction of a carcass suspended in space. Its unconventional hues imbue mystery, while matter-of-fact treatment elicits laughter that is difficult to define.
"Green Bowl," a stark still life, represented Brown's daring evolution. Having attained early recognition including MoMA acquisition, she followed a distinctive muse departing from stylistic conventions. This moved her beyond commercial success into a self-directed exploration.
As an associate curator, Lim organized the exhibition with Janet Bishop to showcase Brown's discerning vision on its own merits. Her works illustrate an intimate world free from the pressures of popularity or trend. Traveling internationally, the retrospective celebrates Brown's singular skills and strength in nurturing her creative spirit.
Brown's creative journey led to ever-changing visions. Works like "Noel in the Kitchen" depict a maturing perspective blending maternal affection with domesticity. The painting tells a heartwarming tale: a toddler reaching playfully while dogs watch nearby. However, textures like the checkered floor enhance the dreamlike quality of the painting and the rendered surfaces emanate their own artistic integrity. Family is often featured in Brown's work, resonating sincerity akin to Norman Rockwell through a playful San Franciscan lens. Holiday scenes paired with sepia photographs reveal inspirations. Brown grew most intriguing in portraying herself. Through self-portraiture, she explored the boundary between inner and outer worlds. Free of outside expectations, works like "Bathers" strip away preconceptions to inhabit joy and vulnerability simultaneously.
Brown's restless spirit defies fixation, evolving endlessly. Her insightful works celebrate intimate spaces where imagination meets reality, guided by empathy rather than acceptance alone. Through self and others, Brown's journey illuminates shared understandings of love, discovery, and growth. What's more, for her, self-portraiture offered profound insights into inner and outer worlds. Her courageous yet intimate gazes seem directed inward as much as outward. Works like "Self-Portrait with Fish and Cat" encounter yet invite the viewer into relaxed and open self-reflection. Other paintings strip away preconceptions through absurdist juxtapositions. Revealing vulnerability through costuming elements, Brown investigates identity with playful courage. She faces societal structures yet locates freedom within.
The lighthearted staging questions what we expose and what we conceal in how we present ourselves. You could even say that Brown's portraits transcend the literal, implicating the viewer in shared contemplation. We glimpse her gazing inward, unguarded yet empowered. Through self-revelation that dismantles prescribed roles, her works cultivate a compassionate understanding of our complex, constantly evolving human experience. She illuminates life's paradoxes and pleasures through intimate works that invite us into the mirrored relationship of seeing and being seen.
