Judith S. Brown papers
Object Details
- Creator
- Brown, Judith S., 1931-1992
- Occupation
- Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York
- Topic
- Women artists
- Women sculptors
- Provenance
- The bulk of the collection was donated by Judith Brown in 1978. Additional materials were donated in 1995 and 2007 by Brown via Peter Stettenheim, Brown's brother and the executor of her will.
- Creator
- Brown, Judith S., 1931-1992
- See more items in
- Judith S. Brown papers
- Sponsor
- 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.
- Summary
- The papers of sculptor, painter, and dancer Judith Brown measure 3.3 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 2002. The papers document Brown's career through personal and professional files, printed material, photographs, artwork, and one videocassette recording.
- Biographical / Historical
- Judith Brown (1931-1992) was a sculptor, painter, and dancer in New York, New York, and Brownsville, Vermont. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and studied with Theodore Roszak, 1952-1954. Always fascinated with motion, Brown was noted for successfully capturing fleeting moments of a body's action through sculpture and paintings, with particular interest in how fabric draped and flowed along the body's contours during movement. Brown established herself by the late 1950s, and from then on had a long career of exhibiting and selling her work. Brown's work was exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe, featured in group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, the Boston Arts Festival, The New Britain Museum of American Art, and many other galleries and museums. Brown's one-person exhibitions include shows at Zygos Gallery in Cyprus and Galeriea de Antonio Souza in Mexico City, as well as galleries and museums in Vermont, Florida, and New York City. Brown's artwork was also displayed in windows at Tiffany's and Bonwit Teller in their New York City department stores. In addition to displaying her work in exhibition settings, Brown received many public and private commissions throughout her career. Her public commissions may be found in many U.S. states including New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, and California; and she has work currently housed with several museums and corporations including the Pepsi Company, Marriott Corporation, Dartmouth College, Vermont Law School, Jewish Museum, and the Museum of Dance. During her career, Brown was a trustee and member of the Vermont Council on the Arts, member of Artists Equity Association, Creative Arts Rehabilitation, and Women in the Arts Foundation, Inc. She received honorable mention in the Gold Medal Competition at the Architectural League of New York City in 1958, an award from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in 1970, and an award in creative art from the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976.
- Extent
- 3.3 Linear feet
- Date
- circa 1940-2002
- Archival Repository
- Archives of American Art
- Identifier
- AAA.browjudi
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Sketchbooks
- Video recordings
- Drawings
- Citation
- Judith S. Brown papers, circa 1940-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Arrangement
- The collection is arranged as four series. Series 1: Personal and Professional Papers, circa 1940-1992 (Box 1; .2 linear feet) Series 2: Printed Material, 1950s-2002 (Box 1, 5, OV 6; .6 linear feet) Series 3: Photographs, 1950s-1992 (Box 1-3, 5; 1.5 linear feet) Series 4: Artwork, circa 1940-1992 (Box 3-5, 0V 7-9; 1 linear foot)
- Processing Information
- The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Christopher DeMairo in 2021.
- Rights
- The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
- Genre/Form
- Sketchbooks
- Video recordings
- Drawings
- Scope and Contents
- The papers of sculptor, painter, and dancer Judith Brown measure 3.3 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 2002. The papers document Brown's career through personal and professional files such as resumes and biographical writings, awards, scant personal business records, a video recording about Brown, and some papers related to professional organizations, commissions, and exhibitions. Printed material includes announcements, posters, and catalogs related to group and solo exhibitions, holiday sales of Brown's artwork, studio open houses, and dedication ceremonies; publicity material; reproductions of her artwork; articles and newspaper clippings; and more. The photographs include snapshots, prints, slides, transparencies, and negatives of Brown's artwork, the artist working in her New York City and Vermont studios, exhibitions, installations, and some images with family and friends. Artwork consists of paintings, sketchbooks, project designs, homemade holiday cards, and other works of art made by Brown between the late 1930s to late 1980s.
- Restrictions
- This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
- Record ID
- ebl-1596164414822-1596164414828-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
