Theatre Row (#1-4)

In this mixed intaglio print the four separate plates were printed first individually as proof editions in 1968. In 1970 they were printed in a square as a collective composition on a single sheet. The second printing brings them into consideration as sequential art, like comic strips. Roger Brown used the commonality of subject matter (the frame of theater) and conventions of visual communication to create legible scenes within a recognizable framework. In this regard, they are similar to the theatrical and cartoon-inspired art of Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum, also Chicago Imagists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. (See Smart Museum 2001.648-649, 2001.650-651, 2007.169; and 1995.55.) Characteristically for Brown, however, figures representing an audience are presented as dark silhouettes, as if they are facing a spectacle being enacted deeper within the pictorial space (see 1997.89). The perturbing sense of mystery, dread, and eroticism recall the imagery of René Magritte (1898‒1967) and Giorgio de Chirico (1888‒1978). But like many other Chicago Imagists of his generation, Brown also regarded the self-taught midwestern artist H. C. Westermann (1922-1981) as a forerunner because of Westermann’s meticulous attention to craftsmanship and his attention to framing devices.