Roger Brown

Here we see Roger Brown’s treatment of country music star Hank Williams. Situated in a hyperframe, and set against Brown's trademark depiction of gradiated, cloudy skies, the image more or less reads more like a sincere tribute than satire.

Brown saw Williams as representative of authentic Southern culture. He grew up in Georgiana, Alabama, just downstate from Roger Brown’s home town of Hamilton.

Though hardly as controversial as Brown’s other sideshow banner paintings, this image aligns with his overall approach to the series, seeming to question what the main attraction really is: a pop celebrity, or the artist who immortalizes their image after they’re gone?

Artist Biography:
Brown’s career abounded with solo and group shows internationally, and notable retrospectives of his work were shown by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in 1980, and at the Hirshhorn Museum in 1987. Recent exhibitions include Roger Brown: Hyperframe at Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago, and Roger Brown: VIrtual Still Lifes at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. The Roger Brown Study Collection, maintained by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with curator Lisa Stone, makes Brown’s prolific art collection and archive available to the public.Brown’s political paintings were recently featured at DC Moore Gallery, New York and his Virtual Still Life works were highlighted in a solo exhibition at Maccarone, New York. Brown received his BFA and his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.