Roger Brown (1941–1997)
1926 North Halsted Street, Chicago, IL 60614
773-929-2452
![30_HAHS_ch30_Brown_003Alternate[3C]](https://i0.wp.com/artistshomes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/30_HAHS_ch30_Brown_003Alternate3C.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
ABOUT
The Roger Brown Study Collection is a special collection and house museum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Located in an 1888 brick storefront building in Chicago’s Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood, the collection was the home of artist and alum Roger Brown from 1974 to 1996, when it became an SAIC house museum, archive, and place for explorations and studies.
The collection is preserved the way Brown installed it, as his “Artists’ Museum of Chicago.” It is a mélange of artworks by Chicago Imagists, non-mainstream artists, folk and indigenous art, objects from material and popular culture, costumes, textiles, furniture, travel souvenirs, and sundry objects. The garden was designed by Brown in 1994/95. This place is a lab where students and faculty engage in wonder and projects, as well as aspects of the care, organization, interpretation, and preservation of an extensive collection of art and artifacts.
SPECIAL RESOURCES
“[I am] always interested in making art that a lot of people could respond to on different levels.”
— Roger Brown
Roger Brown (1941–1997)
Roger Brown was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker born in Hamilton and raised in Opelika, Alabama. He moved to Chicago in 1962 and received his BFA in 1968 and MFA in 1970 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During and after his studies, he worked alongside a group of artists now referred to as the Chicago Imagists, including Ed Flood, Art Green, Phil Hanson, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Suellen Rocca, Barbara Rossi, Karl Wirsum, Ray Yoshida, and others. Brown was represented by Phyllis Kind Gallery throughout his entire career. He exhibited internationally and his work is in major museum collections around the world. Brown’s partner George Veronda (1941-1984) was a successful architect who impacted Brown’s life and art in major ways. Brown made hundreds of major works of art before his career was cut short in 1997 due to complications related to HIV/AIDS.
LEARN MORE
The Roger Brown Study Collection (RBSC) is one of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) very special collections. Located in an 1888 brick storefront building redesigned by Roger Brown’s partner George Veronda, it extends the SAIC campus into Chicago’s Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood. It was the home and studio of artist and alumnus Roger Brown from 1974 to 1996, when it became an SAIC house museum, archive, and place for all manner of explorations and studies.
Roger Brown was closely affiliated with the Chicago Imagists, a group of artists associated with SAIC who exhibited together at a series of exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center on Chicago’s south side in the late 1960s, installing their wildly inventive and brightly-colored works alongside objects from their unique collections. Informed by regular trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and Field Museum, and inspired by collections of surrealist artists such as André Breton, Chicago Imagists filled their homes and studios with items that influenced their own work.
The collection is preserved the way Brown installed it, as his “Artists’ Museum of Chicago.” It is a mélange of artworks by Chicago Imagists, non-mainstream artists, folk and indigenous art, objects from material and popular culture, costumes, textiles, furniture, travel souvenirs, and sundry objects. Highlights of our collection include works by Henry Darger, William Dawson, Eleanor Dube, Howard Finster, Ed Flood, Lee Godie, Art Green, Phil Hanson, Jesse Howard, Richard Hull, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Aldo Piacenza, Christina Ramberg, Martín Ramírez, Suellen Rocca, Barbara Rossi, Drossos Skyllas, Bill Traylor, H.C. Westermann, Margaret Wharton, Karl Wirsum, Joseph Yoakum, Ray Yoshida, and many others.
The RBSC garden was designed by Brown, and his 1967 Ford Mustang is in the garage. We have many stories to tell: Roger Brown’s life and creative path, the history of this house, histories and narratives of over 2000 objects in it, and histories being made here. We are guided by Brown’s conviction that his collection be presented in an environment devoid of academic and economic hierarchies, and his belief in the “spiritual and mystical nature that material things can evoke.”
