Fall 2015, what happened

Guests!
This semester we hosted: 57 SAIC classes, classes from other schools, several receptions and public tours, 30 SAIC student researchers, 14 independent researchers, and uncounted, stray, sneak peek guests.
Above: Peter Exley’s Research Studio class

Good lookers!

Students working in the collection.

Once again, Patricia Rieger’s Curious Intimate Objects class made objects  in response to a visit to the collection, and installed their works throughout the collection and property for the class critique. Above: ceramic objects by Francesca Villagrana in the central stairway.

Tom Burtonwood’s Digital Projects class make 3-d scans of objects in the collection, to use in original works of art.

We participated in the City-wide Chicago Open Archives event on October 8,
giving archives-obsessed guests a peek at some of our treasures.

SAIC’s Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration fellow, Gal Amiram, has been working as a studio assistant for faculty member Aimée Beaubien.

Together they spent a day a week throughout the fall, photographing objects in the collection, primarily woven works. Beaubien deconstructs and weaves her photos into beguilingly beautiful sculptures, which she’s deploying to a number of exhibitions.

Beaubien’s work at Form Unbound, Dominican University, November 5 – December 19, 2015

After 17 years of preserving the Roger Brown Rock House Museum in Beulah, Alabama, Greg Brown made the difficult decision to empty the building and sell it. Greg took two booths in a local antiques mall, and has been having fun arranging and selling items, from the Rock House, and his and Benedicte’s collections. We applaud Greg and the Brown family for making Roger’s last home, studio, garden, and collection come true, and for their heartfelt efforts in preserving the building and keeping it lively for so long.

RBSC staff participated in a series of lectures and tours of  At Home in Chicago members at The Arts Club of Chicago.

Lisa represented the RBSC at the second lecture, discussing issues of preservation and access at historic house museums.

We’re pleased to announce that the National Gallery of Art acquired a number of works
on paper and exhibition ephemera from the Roger Brown Estate and the RBSC archive.
The National Gallery also received Brown’s painting Waterfall (1974) from the Corcoran Collection.
We’re thrilled that that major works by Brown are now in the Nation’s collection.
Left: Sinking, 1977, etching/aquatint. Right: Standing Around while All Are Sinking, 1977, etching/aquatint.

The painting-in-progress, below, was discovered on a separate canvas, stretched
under another painting during conservation in July 2013.
Sincere thanks to collector Steve Armstrong, who donated this unfinished painting to the Roger Brown Study Collection.

Sketch for the unfinished painting, from Brown’s 1970-1971 sketchbook.

We heartily congratulate RBSC steering committee member and Brown’s dear friend (and ours!),
Barbara Rossi, on her outstanding exhibition BARBARA ROSSI: POOR TRAITS at the New Museum, New York.

There’s much more to tell but we’ll close for now, and promise more missives in the coming year. Thanks to the stellar RBSC staff and SAIC faculty and administration. Warmest wishes to all. Lisa Stone, curator, January 2016