Description

Painter and printmaker Christopher Brown is known for his figurative work. He works in a large scale and is not afraid of using the color black. This monotype from the late eighties is a nice combination of all of these elements. It is large, black is a dominant color, and the subject is definitely figurative, albeit in an abstract way. 

A monotype is a special form of printmaking that is sometimes referred to as "the painterly print." In this process, the artist "paints" an image on a smooth surface by applying one or more layers of pigment. This plate with a sheet of paper on top is then run through a press. The result? A unique one-of-a-kind work on paper. 

Details

• Christopher Brown (American, 1951 - )
• Untitled (1988)
• Monotype on paper
  
• Signed and dated
  
• 49" x 45" (overall) 46 1/2" x 41 1/2" (paper)
• New frame and UV plexiglass

About the Artist

Christopher Brown is a Bay Area painter, printmaker and educator. Born in 1951 in the Marine Corp’s Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, where his father was a doctor, Brown’s family moved to Ohio when he was three. Ten years later his family moved to Illinois when his father was appointed health director at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, from which Brown obtained his B.F.A. in painting. Brown continued his training at the University of California, Davis, studying under the school’s star-studded faculty, including Robert Arneson (1930-1992), Manuel Neri (b. 1930), Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920) and William Wiley (b. 1937). After the first year at Davis, he took a year off and went to Europe on a grant from the University of Illinois before returning to complete his M.F.A. degree in 1976. For the next five years Brown explored various interests -- including art criticism and  travel -- before settling at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981 where he taught studio art until 1994.

Throughout his career Brown has exhibited his work widely in both solo and group shows. He exhibited regularly at Gallery Paule Anglim, with solo shows in 1980, 1983, 1985 1988 and 1990 followed by his first solo show in New York City at the Edward Thorp Gallery in 1992. His work appeared in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s 1982 exhibition, “Fresh Paint: Fifteen California Painters.” In 1995 the Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth organized Brown's first major solo exhibition at a museum titled “History and Memory: Paintings by Christopher Brown.” The exhibit traveled to San Jose, Honolulu, Palm Springs, Calif., and West Palm Beach, Florida. 

Brown has received NEA grants in both painting and art criticism as well as awards from the American Academy and Institute of Art and Letters, and the Equitable and Rockefeller Foundations. His works are in major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the De Young museums in San Francisco; the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis; the Metropolitan Museum of New York; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and many private collections.

Brown continues to create new works and exhibit widely. He has been represented by the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco since 2002 and is an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts, teaching painting and drawing. Brown lives and works in Berkeley.