|
Thanks to Emily's aunt Rebecca, another Brewton painting has been found! Here it is, "Cabin, Stream, and Willow Tree" (1963), 9" x 13":  Jim and Emily's mother, Barbara Holland, spent much of 1962 in Denmark, where Jim worked with Erik Nyholm and Asger Jorn. Barbara wrote a short story called "Cabin, Stream, and Willow Tree," published in Seventeen magazine's November 1962 issue. Although she kept most of her published stories, we can't find this one in her files. The New York Public Library doesn't have it, and Seventeen didn't answer a query.
We were just looking for the story a few months ago, and never expected the painting to pop up! A thousand thanks to Rebecca Holland Snyder for finding it in Virginia, and shipping it to us in New York! Maybe someday we'll find a copy of the story.
0 Comments
In the last months of his life, Jim showed his masterpiece, "Kobenhaven," part of his ongoing dialogue with Asger Jorn. "Kobenhaven," with references to Picasso's "Guernica" and Jasper Johns (the lightbulb), was a direct response to Jorn's masterwork, "Stalingrad." (Showing only a detail from "Kobenhavn" here.) Its full name as listed in the show catalog is "The Bombardment of Kobenhaven in 1801 by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson or The Mad Laughter of Courage II (Til: Asger S. Trine)" "Til" means "to" in Danish, and I think the "S." is a typo and should have been "&." Trine is Katrine Nyholm; this is the seventh known picture Jim dedicated to her. This show ran from March 17 through April 16, 1967. Jim committed suicide on May 11 and, four days later, his work was shown at Perakis Gallery with that of Jim McWilliams, Thomas Chimes and Paul Anthony Greenwood. McWilliams remembers Jim's widow as trying to prevent them from including Jim's work, and "finally we just barged into his studio and took it." The show went on....
In 2008, when I first began looking for Jim's artwork, I heard a great story from Dan Miller, his classmate at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Dan went on to teach at the Academy for (I think) more than 50 years, and is the subject of a documentary by John Thornton. Dan said "Jim's death diminished us all," and told me a story: One day Jim came in to school and said he'd heard he'd get more money under the G.I. Bill if he were married. "So he walked down the hall, asking every girl he saw to marry him. One of them said yes. So they were married." And, said Dan, "I assume he got more money." When I told the story to other friends of Jim's, one of the women said, "Jim asked me to marry him, too."--Emily May 11 will mark 50 years since Jim Brewton's death. We've been reposting some snippets on the Foundation's FaceBook page; here's one: "Here's a baby photo of Jim Brewton I came across in 2009. I was visiting my stepfather, Mark Schilling, and we were sitting around the kitchen table looking through a small wooden box of old family photos. Mark offered me whatever pictures I wanted. I chose a couple of snapshots of my mother with her brother Nick. "Suddenly I noticed a narrow little photo of Jim as a baby, beautifully worn as if it had once ridden around in a wallet for some time. What was it doing there in the Schilling boxhold? And how cool that I was able to instantly recognize the baby as Jim." --Emily  Today a collector sent us pictures of these two splendid paintings, from Jim's time in Denmark in 1962. The collector has kindly given us permission to share these images. You can really see Asger Jorn's influence in them. Jim was electrified when he learned about CoBrA while working at The Print Club in Philadelphia; he jumped at the chance to go to Denmark and make art with Erik Nyholm, Asger Jorn and their friends. What a joy to see images of these fabulous, colorful artworks!   Happy holidays, everyone! And thank you to all Brewton collectors and friends. Please stay in touch!
We're thrilled to announce that John Heon has joined the Brewton Foundation's Board of Directors. John holds a doctorate in English with a concentration in psychology and the history of science from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award, the Dean’s Scholar Award, a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, a Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, and the Penn Student Course Review’s “Hall of Fame Professor” designation. He has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University and has worked in the education department of the Phillips Collection. His areas of scholarly interest include modern and postmodern literature and art, avant-garde comic aesthetics, Alfred Jarry and ’Pataphysics, the relationship between psychopathology and creativity, and the effects of science and technology on culture. He is a founding co-director of the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (www.pasc-arts.org), serves on the Advisory Board of the Penn pre-medical journal, “Synapse,” and has an educational and career consulting practice specializing in the psychological factors that affect academic and professional performance. John has been a champion of Jim Brewton's work since we began planning the ’Pataphysics conference in 2014, and we thank him for joining us. 
We're thrilled to see these water colors by Jim Brewton, from a private Copenhagen collection. The collector recently let us know about his artworks, very happy news! Jim's water colors from 1962 were sold through the Galerie Moderne in Silkeborg, Denmark. He also showed some water colors in his solo exhibition at Makler Gallery in Philadelphia in 1963. We have located only one of the pictures from the Makler show; for the rest, all we have is a list of titles. Owners, please come forward! We absolutely respect your privacy, and knowledge of the artworks is extremely helpful.
 Aboriginal American (1962) I've been updating the catalog of Jim's works since it was a list of only 14 known paintings and prints. That was in February 2008. Happily, today the works we've located--and the 44 documented paintings we still seek--take up a lot of pages! Just finished updating v.13, and creating a key to the works. Onward!   In 1962 and 1965, Jim Brewton traveled to Denmark, working with Erik Nyholm and Asger Jorn in Silkeborg. In 1965 he was also resident artist at Aage Damgaard’s shirt factory-studio in Herning, and showed his work at Galerie AP in Copenhagen (“Graffiti Pataphysic: The American Dream-Girl”).
We now believe Jim painted his Trine series of graffiti works in Silkeborg in 1965, naming them for Katrine Nyholm (Erik and Janet’s daughter, nicknamed “Trine”). Just as he encouraged young Emily to scribble graffiti on his paintings at home in Philadelphia, Jim asked Trine to contribute on this series. In January, Maggie Worsdale gave us Trine 4, which had been given to her by collector Barbara Miller Fine. When we spread the news of Trine 4, another collector told us the previously unknown titles of two abstracts: Trines 3 and 6. Where is Trine 5, and are there any more?  Meet "Trine #4," an exquisite graffiti painting by Jim Brewton. It was probably painted in Denmark in 1965, with the participation of Erik Nyholm's daughter Katrine.
The painting was recently given to actress and singer Maggie Worsdale, who found our website and gave the painting to Emily. Nice!!! Maggie Worsdale is performing as Martha Washington on Sunday, Jan. 7, and has a number of singing engagements coming up, with special shows around Valentine's Day. Check them out! I hope to see Maggie myself someday soon, and thank her in person for her extraordinary kindness. Click here for Maggie Worsdale's show listings. |
RSS Feed