"There is
no better example in the city on Chicago of a single space in
which the exigencies of residential life and the eccentricities
of creative life come together so seamlessly under on roof. The
Roger Brown House and Study Center offers a meaningful example
of the ways in which artists, indeed all citizens, can engage
themselves in a perpetual state of re-making the experience of
home, an, in turn, of self."
— James Rondeau,
Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, The Art Institute of Chicago
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As Director of
the Folk Art Institute and Curator of Special projects for the
Contemporary Center for the museum of American Folk Art (NYC),
I recognize and appreciate the importance of the Roger Brown Study
Collection as a unique setting to study outstanding original art
works in context. The opportunity to examine original works by
trained artists, Roger Brown and the Chicago Imagists along with
the art of self-taught artists they appreciated and in some case
discovered, is extraordinary for researchers, scholars, and the
public..."
— Lee Kogan,
Museum of American Folk Art
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"I have just
had the great pleasure of visiting the Roger Brown Home and Studio...
of course I knew the artist's work, but gained a deeper understanding
of his concerns... Now when I see works by this important voice,
I have a deeper and more complete context in which to place the
canvases... I know you will agree with me, that there is nothing
like seeing the artist’s studio and environment to come
to the essence of creation. Certainly this was true in the case
of the Georgia O'Keeffe Home and studio in Abiquiu..."
— Elizabeth
Glassman, Interim Director, Terra Museum of American Art, former
president, Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation.
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Roger Brown Study Collection
Toy Wall
Roger Brown Study Collection |
In 1996 Roger Brown-- artist, collector, and alumnus --gave his extensive
collection of art and other artistic and archival materials to SAIC
for use as an artist's study collection. Located in Brown's former home,
in the Sheffield Historic District in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood,
the Roger Brown Study Collection is a kaleidoscopic environment of art,
including works by Chicago Imagists and other contemporary artists,
works by self-taught artists, folk art from many cultures, objects from
material and popular culture, costumes, textiles, furniture, travel
souvenirs, and other things Brown surrounded himself with for artistic
inspiration. The archive includes Brown's sketchbooks, library, slides,
photographs, personal and professional correspondence, writings, architectural
drawings, studies for large-scale projects, prints and works on paper
by Brown and other artists, and Brown's 1967 Ford Mustang (located in
the garage), among other things.
The collection is installed as Brown left it, throughout all of the
rooms of the second floor of his former Halsted Street home and studio;
the archive is on the first floor in his former workshop. This assemblage
of art and objects reflects Brown's personal artistic vision and his
insightful responses to the visual, material world around him, while
also exemplifying a significant aspect of Chicago's art history. Brown
and other Chicago Imagist artists were recognized not only for the power
and originality of their works, but for the relationship between their
works and the things they collected and lived with.In this historic
house museum objects derive their meanings equally from their relationships
to each other and from theintensely personal, architectural, and symbolic
context of "home."
The RBSC is one of a number of artist's home and work environments
that has been preserved intact and is open to the public. Its value
as a study collection goes beyond the experience and appreciation of
art and objects. Students from SAIC and other schools have the rare
opportunity to work on most aspects of the curatorial and interpretive
processes entailed in the care and use of the RBSC art and archives.
The collection and its resources are available for individual and class
experiences, student and faculty research, independent study and internship
projects, as well as for observation, reflection, and inspiration. Click
here to see some views of the collection.
Brown's gifts to the School derive from his gratitude for the contributions
of the School to his successful career, and his wish to perpetuate the
creative process for successive generations of students and faculty.
About this he said,
| "...I feel the things in the collection are of universal appeal
to all artists and people with a sense of the spiritual & mystical
nature that material things can evoke." |
| -- Roger Brown 1941-1997
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The Roger Brown Study Collection is located at 1926 North Halsted Street,
Chicago, Illinois 60614. The collection is open by appointment. For
information and to book tours please contact collection curator Lisa
Stone phone: 773.929-2452 , fax: 773. 665-4804 or lstone@artic.edu.
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