Art + Design

Provenance:

The Artist

Thence by descent to the current owner

Lot Note: 

One Share Art Stock is Brown’s way of aligning his views on the concept of art with those of Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton. Gregory Brown describes this print as a ‘stock’, an investment in both Benton and Roger's views on art: 

“Roger uses the writings of Benton to reflect his own artistic views and indeed they do mirror them. Roger was at war with the art world of New York much as Thomas Hart Benton was at war with the art world of Europe.” 

This piece is a manifesto on what art should and should not be. The printed text is pulled directly from Benton’s writings, but Gregory notes “if I didn’t know better, I’d think that these words were from my brother himself.” He emphasizes the significance of the printed text, which describes tense negotiations between contemporary European aesthetics, the return of imitative American art, and the rise of Abstract Expressionist art in America. Benton opposed all of them. One Share Art Stock celebrates art without arrogance. It honors the compromise between formal values and unique creative style in which both Benton and Brown so passionately believed. 

We would like to thank Gregory Brown for his contribution to the cataloguing of this lot. 

Unframed.
Sheet: 22 3/8 x 30 inches.

Minor surface dirt; very slight uneven toning to sheet; scuff to lower center, no longer than 1/4 inch in length; handling crease to lower right, no longer than 1 inch in length; 9 hinge remnants along upper edge of sheet verso; appears to be in otherwise overall good condition. Please request additional images.

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