Byron Browne papers, 1920-1979

Collection Information

Size: 2.1 Linear feet

Summary: The Byron Browne papers measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1920-1979 and document the life and work of Byron Browne through biographical materials, correspondence, personal business records, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork.

Biographical/Historical Note

Byron Browne (1907-1961) was born in Yonkers, New York on June 26, 1907, as George Byron Browne and was a painter, sculptor, and educator in New York City. He helped found the American Abstract Artists, an organization centered in New York that was devoted to exhibiting abstract art, with his wife Rosalind Bengelsdorf and Balcomb Greene in 1935. Browne specialized in still life in the Synthetic Cubism style and was influenced by his friends John Graham, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning. By the 1950s Browne migrated to creating more romantic imagery. Browne started his early career as an academic artist and won numerous awards at the National Academy including the Third Hallgarten Prize for still-life composition. His career consisted of creating murals under the Works Progress Administration for the Chronic Disease Hospital and the 1939 New York World's Fair. He also taught painting at the Art Students League of New York from 1948 to 1959 and went on to then teach at New York University. A survivor of the Great Depression, Browne would continue to struggle to sell art beyond the 1930s, when his most notable work was created. Browne's work is represented at over eighty permanent art museum collections. Browne died on December 25, 1961, in New York City at age 54.

Provenance

Papers were lent for microfilming in 1963 and 1978 by Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne.

Related Materials

Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Rosalind Bengelsdorf conducted by Irving Sandler in 1968 and the Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne papers. The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels 97 and NBB 1-NBB 2) including correspondence, clippings, receipts, contracts, sketches and descriptions related to mural commissions. Loaned materials were returned to the donor and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Language Note

English .

Funding Note

The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.