Roger Brown

Alabamian Roger Brown (1941-1997) was a leading member of the Chicago Imagists, a loosely affiliated group of Chicago-based artists who emerged in the late 1960s. This group’s nonconformist works were typified by exaggerated, fantastical representations of the human body painted in bright, bold colors. Though affiliated with the group, Brown differed in that his art largely consisted of landscapes and cityscapes composed of flat planes, deep colors, patterns, silhouetted figures, and distorted perspectives. Brown blended elements of folk art, surrealism, and pop art to address themes such as religion, politics, disaster, and his personal life. Brown worked primarily with oil on canvas and achieved a smooth, airbrush-like finish in his paintings by building up thin layers of oil paint, virtually eliminating visible brushstrokes. His creative endeavors also extended to murals, set design, and sculpture.

James Roger Brown was born to James Gordon Brown and Mary Elizabeth Palmer Brown on December 10, 1941, in Hamilton, Marion County; he had one sibling, Greg, who also is an artist. Brown’s earliest years were spent living in Hamilton with his mother and grandmother, Cora Lee Palmer, while his father worked in Childersburg, Talladega County. Brown’s great-grandmother, Mary Dizenia “Mammy” Palmer, resided next door. In 1945, the Browns reunited in Opelika, Lee County, where his father had opened a grocery store. While in school, Brown and his brother received private instruction in art from local teacher Loneta Mason. After graduating from Opelika High School in 1960, Brown briefly pursued seminary training at the Church of Christ-affiliated institution, David Lipscomb College in Nashville, before withdrawing in 1961 to pursue an education in the visual arts.

In 1962, Brown enrolled at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (SAIC) and completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts in 1968 and 1970, respectively. While there, Brown also completed a commercial design program at the American Academy of Art and worked for the Chicago Decal Company. During these collegiate years of artistic development, Brown was influenced by a range of artists, including Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Georgia O’Keefe, Edward Hopper, and Joseph Yoakum, as well as by folk art, tribal art, and the cultural diversity and eclectic offerings of Chicago’s Maxwell Street flea market. In the late 1960s, Don Baum of Hyde Park Art Center curated several exhibitions that showcased work by Brown and others who would become known as the Chicago Imagists and drew their inspiration from a variety of sources including comics, advertisements, and ethnographic collections, such as Yoruba masks from West Africa and Pre-Colombian art.

Autobiography in the Shape of Alabama (Mammy's Door)

Brown often revisited subject matter, as seen in Untitled (Movie House with Father’s Dream) (1968) and The Ritz (1968), two of dozens of theater scenes he had painted in the late 1960s. Represented by the Phyllis Kind Gallery beginning in 1971, Brown continued gaining prominence in the Chicago art scene with exhibitions like Disasters (1972) and inclusion in the publication Fantastic Images: Chicago Art Since 1945 by Franz Schultz (1972). Ablaze and Ajar (1972) is emblematic of Brown’s comic-style scenes of disaster set in urban environments, whereas Autobiography in the Shape of Alabama: Mammy’s Door (1974) illustrates his experimentation with sculpture and mixed media as well as his nostalgia for home. One side of this two-sided hinged “door” features scenes from around Alabama painted in shades of black, blue, and green, including Birmingham skyscrapers, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, and farmland near Opelika. The verso (back side) resembles a traditional wooden door with family photos affixed to its panels.

In 1974, with the help of his partner, architect George Veronda, Brown renovated a storefront property on North Halsted Street in Chicago to serve as his home, studio, and space to house his growing collection of art and artifacts. In 1982, Brown purchased and similarly renovated a home in New Buffalo, Michigan, where he resided for several years before permanently relocating to La Conchita, California, in 1993.

Celebration of the Uncultivated

Brown’s evolving relationship with religion is showcased in a number of works, including Dr. Imperial's Tree of Knowledge (1985), in which he juxtaposes a crucifix with the snake from the biblical story of Adam and Eve. This work, along with the stylized, gray-toned Celebration of the Uncultivated—A Garden of the Wild (1980) and ode to Hank Williams, Honky Tonk Man (1991), are held by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). In 1980, a major retrospective of Brown’s work was exhibited at the MMFA.

An avid genealogist from a young age, Brown discovered shared lineage with two celebrities: actress Tallulah Bankhead and Elvis Presley. In Kissin’ Cousins (1990), Brown illustrates his connection to the rock and roll singer by tracing their roots back to mutual ancestors from Tennessee.

Franklin Yarbrough Store

In the 1990s, Brown and his family made efforts to buy a ca. 1870 rock house in Beulah, Lee County, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Brown had been interested in the building, located near his Opelika home, since his childhood. Originally known as the Franklin Yarbrough Store, this stone structure served as both a general store, lodge, and meeting place for the town’s Masonic Orders. Brown died from complications related to AIDS in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 22, 1997, just three days before closing the sale. He is buried in Garden Hills Cemetery in Opelika. Nevertheless, his family purchased and renovated the house, and two years later, his family opened the James Roger Brown Rock House Museum as a memorial to Brown’s years in Alabama. Also, shortly before his death, Brown donated his properties in Chicago and New Buffalo along with their contents to SAIC, where they have been preserved in situ.

In 2004, Brown was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. His work is held in the public collections of more than 90 institutions worldwide.