Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Byron Browne
Woman with Arms Crossed

1955

$3,500
£2,666.47
€3,074.54
CA$4,898.18
A$5,472.90
CHF 2,862.93
MX$67,115.29
NOK 36,582.85
SEK 34,690.23
DKK 22,946.95
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Woman with Arms Crossed Mixed media collage-painting on stone chip surface, mounted on fabric, mounted on wood support by the artist, 1955 Signed and dated lower center Image size: 11 7/8 x 7 inches Wooden support size: 14 x 9 inches Modernist painter and one of the founders of American Abstract Artists, a New York City organization devoted to exhibiting abstract art. Browne specialized in still life in the style of Synthetic Cubism, influenced by his friends John Graham, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning. Joan Stahl American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995) Byron Browne was a central figure in many of the artistic and political groups that flourished during the 1930s. He was an early member of the Artists’ Union, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, and participated in the Artists’ Congress until 1940 when political infighting prompted Browne and others to form the break-away Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. Browne’s artistic training followed traditional lines. From 1925 to 1928, he studied at the National Academy of Design, where in his last year he won the prestigious Third Hallgarten Prize for a still-life composition. Yet before finishing his studies, Browne discovered the newly established Gallery of Living Art. There and through his friends John Graham and Arshile Gorky, he became fascinated with Picasso, Braque, Miró, and other modern masters. The mid 1930s were difficult financially for Browne.(1) His work was exhibited in a number of shows, but sales were few. Relief came when Burgoyne Diller began championing abstraction within the WPA’s mural division. Browne completed abstract works for Studio D at radio station WNYC, the U.S. Passport Office in Rockefeller Center, the Chronic Disease Hospital, the Williamsburg Housing Project, and the 1939 World’s Fair.(2) Although Browne destroyed his early academic work shortly after leaving the National Academy, he remained steadfast in his commitment to the value of tradition, and especially to the work of Ingres.(3) Browne believed, with his friend Gorky, that every artist has to have tradition. Without tradition art is no good. Having a tradition enables you to tackle new problems with authority, with solid footing.(4)” Browne’s stylistic excursions took many paths during the 1930s. His WNYC mural reflects the hard-edged Neo-plastic ideas of Diller, although a rougher Expressionism better suited his fascination for the primitive, mythical, and organic. A signer, with Harari and others, of the 1937 Art Front letter, which insisted that abstract art forms ​“are not separated from life,” Browne admitted nature to his art—whether as an abstracted still life, a fully nonobjective canvas built from colors seen in nature, or in portraits and figure drawings executed with immaculate, Ingres-like finesse.(5) He advocated nature as the foundation for all art and had little use for the spiritual and mystical arguments promoted by Hilla Rebay at the Guggenheim Collection: When I hear the words non-objective, intra-subjective, avant-garde and such trivialities, I run. There is only visible nature, visible to the eye or, visible by mechanical means, the telescope, microscope, etc.”(6) Increasingly in the 1940s, Browne adopted an energetic, gestural style. Painterly brushstrokes and roughly textured surfaces amplify the primordial undercurrents posed by his symbolic and mythical themes. In 1945, Browne showed with Adolph Gottlieb, William Baziotes, David Hare, Hans Hofmann, Carl Holty, Romare Bearden, and Robert Motherwell at the newly opened Samuel Kootz Gallery. When Kootz suspended business for a year in 1948, Browne began showing at Grand Central Galleries. In 1950, he joined the faculty of the Art Students League, and in 1959 he began teaching advanced painting at New York University. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art
  • Creator:
    Byron Browne (1907-1961, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1955
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 11.875 in (30.17 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA96051stDibs: LU14014012272

More From This Seller

View All
Untitled (seated female nude)
By Henry Keller
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Seated Femake Nude Graphite and chalk on tan paper, c. 1920 Signed "Keller" and signed again with the artist's initials in a cypher A finished life drawing most probably exhibited at...
Category

1920s American Modern Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Female Nude Study
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Female Nude Study Graphite and crayon on wove paper, c. 1928 Signed with the Estate stamp "B" (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Edward Sommer (his so...
Category

1920s American Modern Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Crayon

Untitled (Standing Woman)
By Léopold Survage
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Leopold Survage (1879-1968) Untitled (Woman Standing) Graphite on paper, 1933 Signed in pencil by the artist: Survage Signed with the estate stamp lower right Signed in pencil "LS" f...
Category

1930s Cubist Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Preliminary Study for a Sculpture Project
By Boris Lovet-Lorski
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Preliminary Study for a Sculpture Project Graphite, charcoal and wash on tracing paper, c. 1930-1940 Signed upper left and lower left (see both photos) Created while the artist was l...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Standing Female Nude
By Aaron Bohrod
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude Ink on paper Signed by the artist with his initials lower left "AB" Related to numerous drawings of the same model illustrated in: Elliott and Wooden, Aaron Bohr...
Category

1950s American Realist Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Seated Woman, Left Hand to Chin
By William H. Bailey
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Seated Woman, Left Hand to Chin Graphite on laid paper, 1984 Signed and dated in pencil (see photo) Provenance: Donald Morris Gallery, Inc. Birmingham, MI ...
Category

1980s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

You May Also Like

Woman sitting: Hilary Hennes Miller c.1940 English Modern British Art
By Hilary Hennes
Located in London, GB
To see our other Modern British Art, including others by Hennes, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller" - or send us a message if you...
Category

1940s Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Woman posing mixed media painting
By Jordi Curos
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Jordi Curós Ventura (1930-2007) - Woman Mixed technique on canvas cardboard. Work measurements 35x27 cm. Frame 40x32 cm. Jordi Curós Ventura (Olot, Girona, March 4, 1930) is a Spani...
Category

1970s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Portrait of a Seated Woman
By Joseph Solman
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Oil on canvas, signed with initials center left. Measures 32" x 23.5" including the frame. Provenance: ACA Galleries, NYC Bradbury Art and Antiques, Wiscasset, Maine Brought to...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

FEMME ASSISE
By Enrico Baj
Located in Aventura, FL
Silkscreen on paper with mixed media, felt and glitter. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Edition of 250. Artwork image size approx 31.5 x 23.5 inches. Artwork sheet size 39....
Category

1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen, Felt, Glitter, Paper, Mixed Media

FEMME ASSISE
$1,650 Sale Price
25% Off
Ben Carrivick - Contemporary Oil, Woman Standing
Located in Corsham, GB
A fine contemporary study by the Cornish artist Ben Carrivick. He has captured a striking female figure standing in a surreal landscape. Inspire...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Strong Woman NEW, Painting, Acrylic on Wood Panel
By Geert Lemmers
Located in Yardley, PA
Acrylic and oil paint and pastels on preprocessed wooden panel in wooden frame. Geert's works are built up in layers and provide a rich tapestry of emotions and experiences. The w...
Category

2010s Expressionist Paintings

Materials

Acrylic