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Joan Brown, Portrait of a Chair, 1958

Joan Brown

Portrait of a Chair

1958

Oil on canvas

78 x 85 1/2 inches

JBRp 77

Joan Brown, Dancers #1, 1971

Joan Brown

Dancers #1, 1971

Enamel on masonite

90 x 48 inches

JBRp 75

Joan Brown, Portrait of a Girl, 1971

Joan Brown

Portrait of a Girl

1971

Oil on masonite

90 x 48 inches

JBRp 78

Joan Brown, Self-Portrait with Fish and Cat, 1970

Joan Brown 

Self-Portrait with Fish and Cat

1970

Enamel on canvas

96 x 48 inches

JBRp 14

Joan Brown, Christmas Time 1970 (Joan & Noel), 1970

Joan Brown

Christmas Time 1970 (Joan & Noel)

1970

Enamel on masonite

96 x 48 inches

JBRp 16

Joan Brown, Mary Julia #9, 1976

Joan Brown

Mary Julia #9

1976

Acrylic, pencil and crayon on paper

36 x 24 inches

JBRd 68

Joan Brown, Old Painting shoe and New Painting Shoe, 1972

Joan Brown

Old Painting shoe and New Painting Shoe

1972

Enamel on canvas

20 x 16 inches

JBRp 82

Joan Brown, Gordon, Joan and Ruffus in Front of S.F. Opera House, 1969

Joan Brown

Gordon, Joan and Ruffus in Front of S.F. Opera House

1969

Oil on canvas

2 panels, 80 x 30 5/8 inches, and 80 x 60 inches

JBRp 25

Joan Brown, Celeste #3, 1976

Joan Brown

Celeste #3

1976

Acrylic and ink on paper

36 x 24 inches

JBRd 14

Joan Brown, Portrait of Tinye van Arnsdale, 1972

Joan Brown

Portrait of Tinye van Arnsdale

1972

Enamel on canvas

48 x 36 inches

JBRp 66

Joan Brown, Mary Julia & David #5, 1976

Joan Brown

Mary Julia & David #5

1976

Acrylic and pencil on paper

30 x 24 1/8 inches

JBRd 35

Joan Brown, Twenty to Nine, 1972

Joan Brown

Twenty to Nine, 1972

enamel on masonite

90 x 48 inches

JBRp 81

Joan Brown, Homage to Picasso, 1973

Joan Brown

Homage to Picasso

1973

Oil enamel on canvas

84 x 72 inches

JBRp 27

Joan Brown, Woman Wiating in a Theatre Lobby, 1975

Joan Brown

Woman Wiating in a Theatre Lobby

1975

Enamel on canvas

78 x 90 inches

JBRp 63

Press Release

This show is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and colleague Paule Anglim.

                                                                                                                                 * * *

During the month of April the George Adams Gallery will mount an exhibition of paintings by Joan Brown (1938-1990). There will be nine paintings on view and will include examples of some of her best-known images from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

After a roughly five-year hiatus, Joan Brown exhibited a series of large-scale, autobiographical paintings shown at the Hansen Fuller Gallery, San Francisco in 1971. Having remarried (to the artist Gordon Cook) in 1967, Brown left her native San Francisco for the Sacramento River’s Delta area where she made the 8 foot tall, enamel on masonite paintings that form the core of the current exhibition. No longer working in the virtuosic Bay Area Figurative style typified by David Park and her mentor Elmer Bischoff, these paintings are broadly rendered yet closely scrutinized self-portraits as a young girl, a young mother, as a woman, and as a newly wed. These paintings, rarely seen or exhibited as a group, mark Joan Brown’s re-emergence as a lively artistic force in the California Bay Area, a role she would maintain until her untimely death at age 52.

Included in the exhibition are her iconic Self-portrait with Fish, 1971; Christmas Time (Noel and Joan), 1971; and Portrait of a Girl, 1971. In addition the exhibition will feature: an important early canvas Portrait of a Chair, painted in 1958 when Brown was just 19 years old; Joan, Gordon, and Rufus in Front of the S.F. Opera House, a triple portrait of the artist with her new husband Gordon Cook and their dog Rufus, from 1969; and the quintessential mid-70s self-portrait, Woman Waiting in a Theater Lobby from 1975.

The exhibition, an expansion on the gallery’s booth at the recent Art Dealers Association Art Show, will run from April 1 through May 2.