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BOB BROWN

 

 

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Robert Aaron "Bob" Brown (1895-1954)

 

Born in Berlin, Wisconsin, Brown worked as an Iron Moulder and played professional baseball as a young man with the Toledo Mudhens before becoming enthralled in art.  He lived in St. Paul from the mid 1920's until his death in 1954.  Brown had his most productive period in the 1930s when much of his work reflected the social and economic problems of that time and focused on urban or industrial scenes. 

His paintings have been described as some of the finest examples of Depression-era art.  During his travels to Europe, he was influenced by Honore Daumier, Peter Paul Reubens, El Greco, Diego Rivera, and Paul Cezanne.  It appears that Brown created his lithographs while enrolled in the Minnesota WPA Federal Art Project. His work was re-discovered in 1985 after years in storage.

He studied at the St. Paul School of Art, Art Students League, Minnesota Artists Union and with Robert Henri in New York in the early 1920s.  He was a Member of the Minnesota Artists Association, Minnesota Artists Union and American Artists Congress. 

He exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Public Works of Art Project National Exhibition of Art, 1934, and Minnesota State Fair.  He is included in Who'sWho in American Art and his works are in the permanent collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

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