About Jim Brewton
Brewton's Oxford I.D., 1954
Born Nov. 4, 1930, in Toledo, Ohio, Jim Brewton died in Philadelphia, May 11, 1967. At the time of his death at 36, Brewton was beginning to distinguish himself as one of Philadelphia’s premier painters and printmakers.
Invitation to a PAFA show in 1965, artified by Jim Brewton
Known for portraits, prints and highly original abstract, graffiti-inspired paintings, Brewton was an avant-garde artist who was classically trained. He studied at the Ruskin School at Oxford in 1954 through 1955 and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) from 1955 through 1958. At PAFA, Brewton was a protégé of Franklin Watkins and Hobson Pittman.
Brewton’s work won awards and prizes, and he was championed by critics while he was still a student. “Mr. Brewton’s career was launched dramatically,” ran his obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1967, “when his canvas 'The Suicide of Judas' won the prestigious $1000 Schiedt prize ... the tall ex-marine sergeant, a veteran of the Korean war, thus captured—at the very early age of 28—the same award William Glackens, Stuart Davis, Hans Hoffman, Ivan Albright and Charles Burchfield had earned in their maturity.”
Brewton was influenced by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and Alfred Jarry. In the late 1950s he met Danish artist Erik Nyholm and, through Nyholm, Asger Jorn. Jorn's ideas inspired Brewton, and a sustained dialogue through art began as Brewton brought northern European avant-garde ideas home to Philadelphia. Other contemporaries whose work sparked response in Brewton included Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Brewton’s work won awards and prizes, and he was championed by critics while he was still a student. “Mr. Brewton’s career was launched dramatically,” ran his obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1967, “when his canvas 'The Suicide of Judas' won the prestigious $1000 Schiedt prize ... the tall ex-marine sergeant, a veteran of the Korean war, thus captured—at the very early age of 28—the same award William Glackens, Stuart Davis, Hans Hoffman, Ivan Albright and Charles Burchfield had earned in their maturity.”
Brewton was influenced by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and Alfred Jarry. In the late 1950s he met Danish artist Erik Nyholm and, through Nyholm, Asger Jorn. Jorn's ideas inspired Brewton, and a sustained dialogue through art began as Brewton brought northern European avant-garde ideas home to Philadelphia. Other contemporaries whose work sparked response in Brewton included Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Erik Nyholm, Asger Jorn and Jim Brewton, 1965. Nyholm carries a work by Brewton. From the film, "Three Researchers, One Asger Jorn," by Denmark's Statens Museum for Kunst and Museum Jorn, 2014.
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Brewton lived in Denmark for months at a time, in 1962 through 1963 (where his daughter, Emily, with writer Barbara Holland was born in Silkeborg), and again in 1965. He exhibited his work at Galerie Moderne in Silkeborg and Galerie AP in Copenhagen, held a residency at Aage Damgaard's famous Angli factory (now a museum in Herning), and hoped to form an avant-garde artist group in Philadelphia similar to those he saw in Silkeborg. Inspired by the former CoBrA artists' expressive work, Brewton helped Jorn with his Comparative Vandalism project and riffed off of the Situationists. These avant-garde European connections were extremely unusual for a Philadelphia-based artist at the time.
James E. Brewton. "Homage to Alfred Jarry." The painting is missing.
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James E. Brewton. "Asger Jorn, pour tous les hommes." 1964, oils on canvas, 50" x 30", private collection.
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From his base in Philadelphia, Brewton traveled whenever he could, to Spain, France, England and Denmark. Rather than teaching, he took part-time manual jobs and concentrated on painting and printmaking. One former employer remembers ordering a sumptuous display of paint samples for his bookstore so Jim could take the paints home. “In return, he gave me a copy of The Pataphysics Times, one of his prints.”
James E. Brewton. "The Deposition" 1959, tempera on wood panel, 48.5" x 48.5", winner of J. Henry Schiedt Memorial Prize, among other awards, private collection. Photo: Elena Bouvier.
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James E. Brewton. "Une Saison en Enfer." Private collection.
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James E. Brewton. "Friday." 1964, print from collage, 15" x 19". Collection James E. Brewton Foundation.
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In the last years of his life, Brewton was represented by Harry Kulkowitz’s Kenmore Galleries on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. He exhibited his work in group and solo shows at Kenmore, the Makler Gallery, and the annual PAFA exhibitions.
His prints were selling well, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a half-dozen in its permanent collection. From his colorful, CoBrA-inspired phase, Brewton had progressed by 1965 to muted, wall-like dream pieces. His works had evolved into a synthesis of graffiti (“anonymous and therefore for all mankind”) and Alfred Jarry’s philosophy of 'Pataphysics. Brewton called his method of artistic exploration "Graffiti Pataphysic."
By the time he died in 1967, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
His prints were selling well, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a half-dozen in its permanent collection. From his colorful, CoBrA-inspired phase, Brewton had progressed by 1965 to muted, wall-like dream pieces. His works had evolved into a synthesis of graffiti (“anonymous and therefore for all mankind”) and Alfred Jarry’s philosophy of 'Pataphysics. Brewton called his method of artistic exploration "Graffiti Pataphysic."
By the time he died in 1967, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
James E. Brewton. "Unexpected Relationships." 1964, print ed. of 25, 35" x 24", private collection. Nine copies have been located.
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Exhibition flyer (detail). 1971, designed by Vera Carbo for Brewton's memorial exhibition at Kenmore Galleries, Philadelphia.
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Undated photograph of Jim Brewton at work
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Four days after his death, Brewton’s work was shown at the Socrates Perakis gallery in Philadelphia, along with that of Jim McWilliams, Thomas Chimes and sculptor Paul Anthony Greenwood. “Artist’s Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit” was the headline for Dorothy Grafly’s review.
A year later, a memorial show was held at the Peale Galleries at PAFA. Hobson Pittman wrote for the catalogue, “A truly gifted artist. … Jim Brewton, from his earliest work, gave evidence of a peculiar and constant search for the nebulous and metaphysical symbol.… His standard of judgement was … innate, as it is with genuinely endowed artists. His deep understanding of aesthetics was evident in everything he did.”
In 1971, Harry Kulkowitz held a memorial show, co-curated by Mrs. Ronald Weingrad, at his Kenmore Galleries. Proceeds funded a scholarship at PAFA. When the exhibition closed, Brewton's works were scattered and not seen again publicly for more than forty years.
The James E. Brewton Foundation was formed in 2008 by Jim's daughter and friends; it is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity. Our purpose is to locate, stabilize and catalogue the artwork; and to collaborate with cultural and educational institutions in the advanced study of mid-century avant-garde movements. When the search for artwork began, we knew of only fourteen pieces. Today, we have located more than 175 works. In 2012, Brewton's portrait of Edgar Allan Poe was shown at The Woodmere Museum in Chestnut Hill, Pa.; two years later, we curated Brewton's first solo exhibition since 1971, at Slought, Philadelphia.
Brewton's The Pataphysics Times (1964) was on view in Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde, curated by Sid Sachs and Jennie Hirsh, at UArt's Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., Philadelphia, Jan. 21 - April 4, 2020. See "About Us" for more about the James E. Brewton Foundation's work.
James E. Brewton. Untitled (portrait of Edgar Allan Poe). n.d., oils on canvas, 20" x 24". Private collection.
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Installation view of solo exhibition, "Graffiti Pataphysic, for all mankind," 21 March-1 May, 2014, Slought, Philadelphia. Tondo canvas is "Patatarget" (1964-65, m/m on canvas, 34" diameter); on the right, "Ubu Becomes King" (1962, oils on linen, 46" x 36").
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