Personal Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Roger Brown
American; 20th-century
Chicago, IL: Midway International Airport
62%
Snake Charmer. 1990. Oil on canvas
There seems to be little of the spark of invention remaining in this later work of Brown's — in other words, it's a bit mannered — even if the tried-and-true elements of his style are workhorse-ing reasonably well. The softness of the background's landscape sets off the linearity of the urban tableau in the foreground, the backlit figures play out a scene that's sufficiently cryptic and interesting, etc. The main problem is how pat the snake metaphor seems, and how equivocal its sinuous form is. However, the thick orange border, which extends around the canvas's stretched sides, is a nice classic Imagist touch that bounds the picture while making the painting into an object. Even this gesture, though, seems a bit automatic. (2024)