biography of Byron George BROWNE (1907-1961)

Birth place: Yonkers, NY

Death place: NYC

Addresses: NYC/Lakewood, NJ, 1940; NYC

Profession: Painter, designer, sculptor

Studied: NAD, 1924-28; Karfunkle; Aiken; Zorach.

Exhibited: NAD, 1928 (prize), 1929; AIC, 1928, 1935, 1946; Corcoran Gal, 1928, 1930, 1947, 1953, 1957; PAFA, 1930 (as George B. Browne), 1931, 1936, 1946-47, 1951, 1954 (as Byron Browne); WMAA, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1946; MoMA, 1939; WFNY 1939; Audubon Artists, 1945; Carnegie Inst., 1946; Kootz Gal., 1946 (solo); Salons of Am.; S.Indp.A; LaTausca Exhib., 1947 (prize); Univ. Illinois, 1951 (prize); over 60 solo shows, 1933-77; NYC WPA Exhib., Parsons School Design, 1977; M. Diamond FA; NYC, 1983 (solo)

Member: Am. Abstract Artists, 1935 (charter mem.); AEA; Audubon Artists; Am. Artists Congress; Allied AA; Yonkers AA.

Work: WMAA; MoMA; BM; BMFA; PAFA; Am. Academy of Arts & Letters; Newark Mus. Art; Butler AI; Univ. Georgia; Hirshhorn Mus.; Dallas Mus. FA; Tel-Aviv Mus.; San Angelo AA; IBM; Rio de Janeiro; Roswell Mus.; Univ. Minnesota; Cornell Univ.; Northeastern Univ.; Brown Univ.; New School for Social Research, NY; Univ. Arizona; Walter Chrysler Jr. College; murals, Municipal Broadcasting Station (WNYC); mosaic, U.S. Passport Office, NY; mural, Williamsburg Housing Project, NY, 1935-36.

Comments: In 1927 he began to experiment with abstraction, and later destroyed all of his earlier representational art. During the mid-1930s he was a WPA painter and became active with the American Abstract Artists group. During the 1930s he was painting in the Cubist style, and by the 1940s he was painting in a biomorphic style influenced by Arp and Miro. From 1952-61, he was active in Provincetown, MA, where he combined both painting styles in a gestural manner in murals, and carved stone memorials. Married to Rosalind Bengelsdorf (see entry). Position: instr., ASL, 1948-59; advanced painting, NYU, 1959-on. His name usually appears as Byron Browne, but also occasionally as George Byron-Browne and George B. Browne.

Sources: WW59; WW47; WW40 (as George Byron-Browne, gave birthyear as 1908); New York City WPA Art, 14 (w/repros.); American Abstract Art, 178; Falk, Exhibition Record Series.