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Colleen Browning (May 16, 1918 – August 22, 2003, New York, NY) was an Anglo-American realist and magical realist painter.


Early life

Colleen Browning was born 16 May 1918 in Shoeburyness, Essex, England at the mouth of the River Thames."Selected Chronology"
Southern Alleghenies Art Museum, Retrieved 18 April 2014.
As a child, Browning was a gifted artist. Her parents supported and encouraged her by enrolling her in the Farnham School of Arts in 1933. In 1934 she exhibited at the Women in Arts Society in London. In 1935 she attended the Salisbury School of Arts and Craft. In that year she also exhibited her drawings and paintings at the
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...
. Browning attended London's
Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
on a full scholarship from 1937 to 1939. In 1942, she worked as a mapmaker for the Royal Air Force during World War II. Browning later worked as a set designer in London for the Two Cities Film Studios, which was later to become the J. Arthur Rank Film Corporation. In 1948 Browning met the English writer Geoffrey Wagner while on vacation on the island of Ischia.Boros, Phylis A.S
"Lifting the 'metaphoric veil' on Colleen Browning"
''The Connecticut Post'', Retrieved 18 April 2014.
They quickly decided to marry in America, where Wagner had been hired to teach at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...
. Toward the latter part of the 1940s she experimented with fantasy compositions inspired by Salvador Dali and other Surrealist leaders. She made the transition from theatrical work to easel painter toward the end of the 1940s


Career

In 1949 she emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City. There, she and Mr. Wagner lived on 116th Street and Second Avenue. It was there that she painted “Holiday,” looking down from her fourth-floor window, and “East Harlem Street Scene,” depicting the bustle of her neighborhood. In “Fire Escape II,” she arranged four children on the vertical structure of a fire escape Browning became an American citizen a year later. The artist lived in New York City for the next five decades. Browning was a major figure in the realism (arts) movement in New York City during a time when Abstract Realism and the art of
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
was beginning to rise to prominence. In particular, Browning often painted New York City and scenes of urban life. For instance her painting ''Holiday'' (1951-2) depicts a street scene that Browning captured while living on 116th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. In 1952 she exhibited at the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
. In 1953 she held a solo exhibition at the Edwin Hewitt Gallery in New York City. In her later career, Browning created works in the style of magic realism that increasingly blurred the lines between the real and the imagined.Dimond, V. Scott
"Curator's Statement"
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Retrieved 18 April 2014.
In works such as ''Picture of a Painting of the Great Circus Parade'' (1988) and Black Umbrella (1970) the artist captures a real event but with a focus on the wonderful and a blurred sense of reality. A leader in the Modern and Post-Modern revivals of Realism in American art, Browning is a realist whose work defies attempts to categorize it. Her work is largely recognized for its superior command of materials and media and for her unwavering devotion to understanding the human condition. Browning also taught art. She was a professor at Pratt Institute and the City College of New York. In 1977, she created a series set in the city’s graffiti-adorned subway cars. In each, dreamy and highly nuanced faces peer out of windows framed by the bold slashes of spray-painted designs. Then in the 1980s, she turned to the occult, painting clairvoyants and astrologers. In addition she taught at the National Academy of Design from 1978 to 1982.Her work was included in the National Academy of Design's yearly exhibitions, and she has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Kennedy Galleries in New York."Colleen Browning"
National Academy Museum, Retrieved 18 April 2014.
Like many professional artists, Browning supplemented her income through commercial illustration and printmaking. This phase of her career is highlighted in SAMA-Johnstown's exhibition. Browning died in New York City on August 22, 2003. According to her wishes, a substantial collection of her paintings was bequeathed to the
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA) is an art museum with five locations in southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. It is headquartered at Saint Francis University in Loretto, where it was founded in 1976. Other locations were o ...
. The years since Ms. Browning’s death in 2003, at 85, have led to a reconsideration of her impact throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Her work, with an endowment to support its exhibition, was bequeathed by her husband’s estate to the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, which organized this traveling retrospective in conjunction with Philip Eliasoph, a professor of art history at Fairfield University and the author of “Colleen Browning: The Enchantment of Realism.”


Recognition

Browning was a
National Academician The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...
. She served on the Academy Council from 1969 to 1972. Her work has been exhibited at the
Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appa ...
, the
Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
, the
Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
, and the
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are four museums that are operated by the Carnegie Institute headquartered in the Carnegie Institute complex in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Carnegie Institute complex, which includes th ...
. During her lifetime, Browning's work was also reproduced in numerous publications, including ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' and '' American Artist''. In 2013 a retrospective of the artist's work was organized at Fairfield University through ''Colleen Browning: The Early Works'' at the Bellarmine Gallery and ''Colleen Browning: A Brush with Magic'' at the Thomas J. Walsh Jr. Art Gallery. A Brush with Magic had already appeared in Ireland and New York City with dates in Connecticut, Ohio and Texas still to come. Her work has also been featured in articles in Time, Newsweek, Glamour, the New York Times, Arts Magazine, Art International, and American Artist. Browning's distinctive brand of figurative painting, with subjects ranging from eerie worshipers in a Guatemalan church to graffiti- covered Harlem subway cars to the surrealist still life Fruits and Friends (1978, Harmon-Meek Galleries, Naples, Fl.), displays definite affinities with both the SOCIAL REALISM of Jack Levine and the MAGIC REALISM of Philip Evergood and George Tooker. Nevertheless, Browning developed and maintains a wry, multi-hued personal stamp to her painting which for almost four decades has set it apart from prevailing fashion.


Collections

*
Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...
*Kalamazoo Institute of Arts *The
Milwaukee Art Center The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...
*The
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
*The
St. Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, M ...
*The
New York State Art Museum New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
*The
National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...
*
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA) is an art museum with five locations in southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. It is headquartered at Saint Francis University in Loretto, where it was founded in 1976. Other locations were o ...
*The
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...


See also

* Realism (arts) * Magic realism


References


External links


"High Points and Other Stops" in the ''New York Times''

Fairfield U Exhibits Paintings Of Realist Colleen Browning

Lifting the 'metaphoric veil' on Colleen Browning


Further reading

* Eliasoph, Philip. ''Colleen Browning: The Enchantment of Realism'' (2011). Hudson Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Browning, Colleen 1929 births 2003 deaths American women painters English women painters British emigrants to the United States Painters from New York (state) 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People from Shoeburyness 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century American women