​We’re delighted to give James E. Brewton’s most recently discovered artwork to Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, Denmark. Museum Jorn, founded by the great artist Asger Jorn (1914-1973), is the first museum outside of the U.S. to collect a piece by Brewton.

The artwork was likely part of Jim’s solo exhibition, The American Dream-Girl: Graffiti Pataphysic, 12-26 May 1965, Galerie AP, NY Adelgade 4, Copenhagen. In 1965, Jim Brewton visited Denmark a second time, thanks to the kindness and hospitality of Erik and Janet Nyholm. Jim worked as a guest artist at Aage Damgaard’s factory/studio, where he created the works for The American Dream-Girl: Graffiti Pataphysic. Most of the pictures remained in Denmark. We thank Lars Jørgensen, Silkeborg, for helping make this donation possible.

Many of the elements of Jim’s mixed-media pieces were saved after his death in 1967, and Emily found them in 2008, thanks to Patricia Wright.

Years later, Emily saw the origin of Jim's unicycle/phallic figure, documented by Jorn's Comparative Vandalism project:

The Brewton Foundation’s mission is to locate, preserve, and ultimately donate its publicly-held artworks to cultural and educational organizations. A nonprofit founded in 2008, we also compile the Brewton catalogue raisonné and serve as a resource for the advanced study of mid-century avant-garde art.

Brewton public collections include:

• Friends' Central School, Philadelphia
• Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
• Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark
• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• University of Pennsylvania Libraries
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

​Claire Van Vliet, who founded Janus Press in 1955, is a key figure in Jim Brewton’s artistic explorations. Emily Brewton Schilling searched for Jim’s portrait of Claire (above) for 12 years, and it came to light at last in February 2021, owned by Tom McGovern in Los Angeles. On Jan. 23, 2023, he generously donated the painting to the Brewton Foundation. We are thrilled and grateful. 

​From Emily’s research:
​
Claire connected Jim with CoBrA artists through friendship with Danish ceramicist and painter Erik Nyholm; and she furthered his printmaking experimentation by introducing him to avant-garde designer and printer Jim McWilliams. She described lending her apartment to Jim when she was out of town during the “summer of ’59 or ’60 or maybe both.” In return, he painted her portrait. “It was a great painting,” she said when I first interviewed her in February 2009, of her “wearing black, sitting in a wing chair.”
 
When she left Philadelphia in 1966, Claire gave the portrait to a friend whose name she couldn’t recall exactly. She gave me an approximation, and I tried to various spellings with no results until 2021. Claire’s friend was Catherine M. Havrilesky (d. 2010); Tom McGovern is one of Catherine Havrilesky’s brothers.
 
CoBrA Art Connection
Claire moved to Philadelphia in 1957 to work for the director of typographic development at Lanston Monotype Machine Company. She taught at Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts, “UArts”) in 1965 and 1966. She met Jim Brewton in 1958. “He looked after The Print Club [now The Print Center] on Saturdays.” In Philadelphia at the time, both the Makler Gallery and The Print Club were showing works by the CoBrA artists, whose exuberant approach to artmaking exhilarated Jim. Claire introduced Jim to Erik Nyholm, a Danish ceramicist, painter, and friend of several CoBrA artists, particularly Asger Jorn.
 
When we talked in early 2009, Claire said, “The Print Club is where Jim saw Asger Jorn’s work,” Claire said. “Berthe [von Moschzisker] had been to Denmark and brought back some early Jorn drawings and prints. Erik would have known Berthe. The Nyholms moved to a condemned house in Eastwick,” while Erik was preparing for an exhibit at Makler Gallery in January 1962. “Berthe connected Erik with a kiln at Ann Kaplan’s studio,” and Claire connected Jim to Erik and his wife, Janet.
 
In 1962 Claire spent eight months in Copenhagen, printing lithograph illustrations of Kafka’s works. “About two days before I was to leave in June,” said Claire, “Jim went and bought tickets for himself and Barbara. I’d been invited to visit the Nyholms before I started work, and instead of showing up alone, I showed up with Jim and Barbara. I went on to Copenhagen, and they stayed in Funder.”
 
After we talked, Claire very generously sent me some Brewton prints from her collection: an artist’s proof of Sunrise (1964); two copies of The Chinese Lincoln (1966) as well as a copy of the Jim McWilliams-designed poster for the exhibition Society for the Commemoration of Festivals and Fetishes, 15 May-7 June, 1967, Socrates Perakis Gallery, Philadelphia. “I remember a Brewton piece that was in the Socrates Perakis show—the sleeve of an ironing board—that was very clever,” Claire told me. “I think I bought Ubu’s Picnic after Jim’s 1965 trip to Denmark. Kristoffer Nyholm has it. I thought they appreciated Jim more in Denmark than in the U.S.”

​Claire Van Vliet

​Van Vliet, a master printmaker, founded Janus Press in 1955; the company’s archives are in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Her work has been recognized with many awards and honors, including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1989. Van Vliet earned her B.A. from San Diego State College and her MFA from the Claremont Graduate University.
In 1995 she was elected to the National Academy of Design, and she has received two Honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts: from UArts in 1993, and from San Diego State University in 2002. In 2017, the Rochester Institute of Technology presented her with its prestigious Frederic W. Goudy Award. Van Vliet has been operating Janus Press from Newark, Vermont, since 1966.

James E. Brewton Foundation

​The James E. Brewton Foundation, Inc., locates and preserves artworks by Brewton (1930-1967). A Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization founded in 2008, we collaborate with cultural institutions and serve as a resource for the advanced study of mid-century avant-garde art. While we continue to locate and stabilize the artwork, we also focus on:

• Expanding our work with educational institutions.
• Assessing Brewton’s work with conservators.
• Formalizing our catalogue raisonné compilation.
• Increasing outreach to nonprofit cultural institutions for exhibition and programming.

 
When our search began, we knew of fourteen artworks. Today, we have located more than 175 works, primarily in the U.S., Denmark, U.K., and Canada. If you’d like more information about the Brewton Foundation, or you own a Brewton artwork we may add to the catalogue raisonné, please contact us.

​I’m thrilled to announce that Jason Broede, Carol Broede, and Eric Olson have donated six exquisite artworks to the James E. Brewton Foundation. We are deeply grateful for this generous gift: The Pataphysics Times and The Chinese Lincoln prints, a portrait, and three outstanding abstract mixed-media works.

​Ubu’s Military Mind is a fantastic portrait, in metal and miscellany, of Alfred Jarry’s monstrous Père Ubu character. The earliest piece in this collection, it showcases important elements of Jim’s creative development, when he began using Jarry’s concept of ’Pataphysics as the engine for his artistic practice, which he called “Graffiti Pataphysic.”  

The piece was most recently shown at Jim’s first solo show since 1971, “Graffiti Pataphysic, for all mankind,” 21 March-1 May 2014, at Slought, 4017 Walnut St., Philadelphia.

Jim’s flair for elevating mundane materials is especially apparent in X and An Egg Carton for the Wall. 

X, a square mixed-media work on canvas, is a magical piece: with discarded silverware packaging, Jim conjured an ancient frieze depicting some sort of supplication to the sun. “X” refers to the small white “x” Jim stenciled onto the canvas, marking the spot where he’d stuck a perfume ad from a magazine and then peeled it off. “X is truly a show-stopper,” says Carol, “and it was such fun to take a look once in a while at The Pataphysics Times and read something.”

The Brewton Foundation’s board of directors and I are extremely grateful to Jason Broede, Carol Broede, and Eric Olson, for their generosity.

These beautiful works are important examples of Jim’s Graffiti Pataphysic practice, and we're thrilled to have them in the Brewton Foundation collection.

Yours,

     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.