James Edward Brewton (November 4, 1930 – May 11, 1967) was an American painter and printmaker who synthesized
expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
, graffiti and
Pataphysics
Pataphysics (french: 'pataphysique) is a " philosophy" of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the "science of im ...
.
He was born November 4, 1930, in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
, and died by suicide in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
at age 36, on May 11, 1967. At the time of his death, Brewton was beginning to distinguish himself as one of Philadelphia's premier painters and printmakers.
Training and career
While in his teens, Brewton studied drawing at the
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...
and painting with John Charvet. At 21, Brewton joined the
Marines
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...
and served in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. He did surprisingly well, climbing to the rank of sergeant. Combat changed him, however: He became a pacifist, protesting the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and painting antiwar works. Brewton's health was wrecked, and he was increasingly plagued by debilitating spine problems.
Although Brewton's style became expressionistic and inspired by graffiti, his training was traditional. Taking advantage of the
G.I. Bill
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...
, he studied at the
Ruskin School
The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division.
History
The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...
at Oxford in 1954-55 and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Franklin C. Watkins and Hobson Pittman. Pittman owned a self-portrait by Brewton, which he featured during tours of his art collection (like the one organized by the Radcliffe Club of Philadelphia in 1961) and exhibited in the show, "Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Sculpture Collected and Owned by Fourteen Philadelphia Artists."
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
was a guest lecturer at PAFA, and Brewton riffed off of Duchamp's work throughout his life. At The Print Club (now
The Print Center
The Print Center is a nonprofit gallery located in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Originally known as The Print Club, the gallery's mission is to "encourage the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking
Printmaking is the ...
), where Brewton worked on weekends, he first saw the work of
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
and was greatly impressed by the wildly expressive and colorful work of the CoBrA group. Among Brewton's friends were
Claire Van Vliet
Claire Van Vliet (born 1933 in Ottawa, Ontario) is an artist, illustrator, and typographer who founded Janus Press in San Diego, California in 1955.
Biography
Van Vliet received the Bachelor of Arts in 1952 from San Diego State College, and t ...
, Erik Nyholm, and
Jim McWilliams
Jim McWilliams (born February 10, 1937) is an American artist and graphic designer who was active as an avant-garde performer and composer during the 1960s and 1970s.
Artist's books, design, and teaching
McWilliams has been active as a graphic de ...
; through Van Vliet and Nyholm, Brewton later befriended Jorn, living in Denmark for months at a time. Other strong influences were
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
and
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
. These European,
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
inspirations were unusual for a Philadelphia-based artist in the 1950s.
Brewton's work won awards and prizes, and he was championed by critics in Philadelphia and New York while still a student. "Mr. Brewton's career was launched dramatically," ran his obituary in ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' in 1967, "when his canvas ‘The Suicide of Judas’ won the prestigious $1000 Schiedt prize …. the tall ex-marine sergeant, a veteran of the Korean War, thus captured—at the very early age of 28—the same award
William Glackens
William James Glackens (March 13, 1870 – May 22, 1938) was an American realist painter and one of the founders of the Ashcan School, which rejected the formal boundaries of artistic beauty laid-down by the conservative National Academy of De ...
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
,
Ivan Albright
Ivan Le Lorraine Albright (February 20, 1897 – November 18, 1983) was an American painter, sculptor and print-maker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes. Due to his technique and dark subject matter, he is of ...
and
Charles Burchfield
Charles Ephraim Burchfield (April 9, 1893 – January 10, 1967) was an American painter and visionary artist, known for his passionate watercolors of nature scenes and townscapes. The largest collection of Burchfield's paintings, archives and j ...
had earned in their maturity."
From his base in Philadelphia, Brewton traveled whenever he could, to Spain, France, England and Denmark. He and his then-partner, writer Barbara Holland, lived in Denmark during much of 1962. In early 1964, Brewton lent several works he owned to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
's Asger Jorn exhibition.
In the last years of his life, Brewton was represented by Harry Kulkowitz's Kenmore Galleries, on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. His prints were selling well, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art holds several in its permanent collection. From his colorful, CoBrA-inspired phase, Brewton had progressed to muted, wall-like pieces incorporating graffiti. By 1965, the works had evolved into a synthesis of graffiti ("anonymous and therefore for all mankind") and
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
's philosophy of 'Pataphysics. Brewton called these works "Graffiti Pataphysic" and also continued to paint portraits.
By the time he died in 1967, Brewton had "had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest," as Nessa Forman wrote in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. "There was an artist," Forman continued, "who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint. And he committed suicide…."
Illness and death
In pain and facing partial paralysis even if spine surgery were successful, Brewton shot himself at around 3 p.m. on May 11, 1967. Four days after his death, Brewton's work was shown at the Socrates Perakis gallery in Philadelphia, along with that of
Jim McWilliams
Jim McWilliams (born February 10, 1937) is an American artist and graphic designer who was active as an avant-garde performer and composer during the 1960s and 1970s.
Artist's books, design, and teaching
McWilliams has been active as a graphic de ...
, Thomas Chimes and sculptor Paul Anthony Greenwood. "Artist's Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit," ran the headline of Dorothy Grafly's review.
A year later, a memorial show was held at the Peale Galleries at PAFA. Hobson Pittman wrote for the catalogue, "A truly gifted artist. … Jim Brewton, from his earliest work, gave evidence of a peculiar and constant search for the nebulous and metaphysical symbol. … His standard of judgement was … innate, as it is with genuinely endowed artists. His deep understanding of aesthetics was evident in everything he did."
Recent exhibits
After a 1971 memorial solo show at Kenmore Galleries, Brewton's work was scattered and he was gradually forgotten by the public. "But not by his only child," wrote Edith Newhall in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. In 2008, Brewton's daughter and friends incorporated the James E. Brewton Foundation and began hunting for his artwork, eventually uncovering hundreds of paintings, prints and constructions. Brewton's portrait of Edgar Allan Poe was shown at Woodmere Art Museum in 2012 and, in 2014, his first solo exhibition in 43 years was mounted at Slought.''The Philadelphia Inquirer''; April 27, 2014; Newhall, Edith: "Recollecting A Forgotten Artist"; Philadelphia. The solo at Slought, part of a conference organized by the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania, "catches Brewton about four years after the elegant realism of his student days," wrote Newhall, concentrating on his Pataphysically influenced works. "Watching the creative leaps and bounds in this selection of a mere 28 works," Newhall continued, "one senses that Brewton knew his lifespan as an artist would be sharply circumscribed - that the sky was the limit."