Stanley Brouwn
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Stanley Edmund Brouwn (25 June 1935 – 18 May 2017) was a Suriname-born Dutch conceptual artist. His works explored dematerialization. He exemplified 1960s conceptualism. His best-known works include ''this way brouwn'', ''Afghanistan-Zambia'', and ''BROUWNTOYS 4000AD''.


Life


Early life

Brouwn was born in 1935 at
Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...
in
Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
. In 1957, he travelled by boat to
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, and lived there until his death in 2017. While there,
Armando Armando may refer to: * Armando (given name) * Armando (artist) (1929–2018), the name used by Dutch artist Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd * Armando (producer) Armando Gallop (sometimes written as Armando Gallup) (February 12, 1970 – December 17, ...
, an artist and friend of Brouwn, introduced him to the Zero movement. Brouwn taught as a professor at the
University of Fine Arts of Hamburg A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
for multiple years. Brouwn eschewed giving biographical data.


Death

Brouwn died on 18 May 2017 in Amsterdam.


Career


Works of the 1960s

In the early 1960s, Brouwn produced his first works. These consisted of iron and wooden
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
. He also used suspended polythene bags filled with garbage. Few of these early works have survived, as Brouwn destroyed most of them. Eventually, Brouwn began to consider the role of the audience in the development of artwork. One of his early works involved the dispersion of paper sheets across Amsterdam streets. The art that appeared upon the sheets resulted from the footprints of pedestrians and tire prints from cyclists.   Brouwn produced his most well-known work in 1961, ''
this way brouwn This may refer to: * ''This'', the singular proximal demonstrative pronoun Places * This (Egypt), or ''Thinis'', an ancient city in Upper Egypt * This, Ardennes, a commune in France * This, a country mentioned in the ''Periplus of the Erythraea ...
''. It was both a conceptual and
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
piece that consisted of Brouwn asking passers-by for directions, recording their responses on tape or encouraging them to draw their directions. Such drawings were stamped with text that read ‘THIS WAY BROUWN’. ''this way brouwn'' was performed on several other occasions in the early 1960s. In the 1960s, conceptual art, as well as the Zero movement within the Netherlands was widespread. Brouwn, as a conceptual artist of the movement, had chosen distance and size as his
artistic medium Media, or mediums, are the core types of material (or related other tools) used by an artist, composer, designer, etc. to create a work of art. For example, a visual artist may broadly use the media of painting or sculpting, which themselves have ...
:
"More and more people make long flights once or twice a year. The validity of the concept of distance is constantly being eroded. Distances are reloaded in my work, they get meaning again."
Similarly, in a rare interview in 1964, Brouwn stated:
"It is the search for the awareness we have of wide space and the discovery of the city before we discover space. With these events, I am trying to make something of what is going on to have an effect on the spectators in terms of an action".
In 1964, at the Patio Gallery in Neu-Isenberg, an 'art-happening' occurred. Brouwn was seated upon a chair, placed atop a pedestal in the corner of the gallery with a polythene bag over his head. That same year, at the opening of the
René Block René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...
Gallery, Brouwn asked guests directions through the streets of Berlin through a
walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...
.


Works of the 1970s

During the 1970s, Brouwn produced works exploring units of measurement. Brouwn developed units of measurement based on the length of his various body parts. He developed the ‘Stanley Brouwn foot’, which was the length of his foot. It measured approximately 26 cm. One of his works, Afghanistan-Zambia, is a typewritten register of the number of steps Brouwn completed in various cities across the world, and a physical example of his concerns surrounding measurement and distance. In 1972, Brouwn exhibited grey filing cabinets at the
Documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...
5 in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
. Each cabinet consisted of varied numbers of white cards. One of these cabinets held 1000 cards, an outline of a 3000-step walk and the length of the strides between 840 and 890 millimetres. Brouwn also explored the concept of deformation. In 1974, he drew lines constructing borders upon three sheets of paper. Each of these lines denoted the length of a step. If these sheets were hung together, a movement in a single direction could be observed.


Later works and exhibitions

Brouwn's works gained fame and earned him positions in a variety of prestigious exhibitions. During his lifetime, his works were included in Documentas 5, 6, 7, and 11, at the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
of 1982 (where he represented the Netherlands), and in a 2005
retrospective exhibition A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...
at the
Van Abbe Museum The Van Abbemuseum () in Eindhoven is one of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. The museum’s collection includes key works and archives by Joseph Beuys, Marc Chagall, René Daniëls, Marlene Dumas, Shee ...
. Another dominant trait of Brouwn's conceptualism was his absence. Brouwn refrained from attending exhibitions of his works and no bibliographical information was supplied to his audiences when viewing such exhibitions. In
exhibition catalogue There are two types of exhibition catalogue (or exhibition catalog): a printed list of exhibits at an art exhibition; and a directory of exhibitors at a trade fair or business-to-business event. Art or museum exhibition catalogues Catalogues for ...
s, the following phrase was often seen:
“At the request of the artist, no bibliographical information is provided here”.


Critical response

Brouwn's works were included in various prestigious exhibitions such as
Documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...
s 5, 6, 7 and 11, and the 1982
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. In 2005, a retrospective collection of Brouwn's works was exhibited in the
Van Abbe Museum The Van Abbemuseum () in Eindhoven is one of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. The museum’s collection includes key works and archives by Joseph Beuys, Marc Chagall, René Daniëls, Marlene Dumas, Shee ...
in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His practice and works have influenced various critics, artists and
contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...
aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
. When discussing Brouwn's conceptualism in the 1960s, Art historian, critic, educator and author
Antje von Graevenitz Antje (-Maria) von Graevenitz, born Ludwig (26 August 1940, Hamburg) is a German art historian, art critic, educator and author. Education and career Since 1970, Antje von Graevenitz has lived in Amsterdam. As a professor of general art histor ...
explained that “from 1960 up to the present, his work would indeed appear to be exemplary of the intentions and realisations of that period”. Dutch writer Oscar van den Boogard analysed the role of the audience as active participants of Brouwn's works, especially with BROUWNTOYS 4000AD., stating that Brouwn “wants the viewer to become his work" and " at is only possible by letting the viewers complete his work in their imagination, over and over again. They are forced to become space and distance, forced to experience space as if it were 4000 AD”. Belgian curator and writer Laura Herman critiqued Brouwn's manipulation of existing and creation of new units of measurement, explaining that “a sly sense of humour permeates the artist’s appropriation of bureaucratic language, which he manipulated toward his own ends."


Legacy


Artistic and cultural influence

The works and practice of Brouwn are said to have shaped future conceptualist thinking and aesthetics. Laura Herman stated that Brouwn continues to inform contemporary observations and reflections of scaled perspectives. The signature absence of Brouwn and its impact upon Conceptualist style is evaluated by Modern Edition founder Mike Brennan, who stated that Brouwn is “an almost legendary figure whose practice is marked by insistence on various absences… and is famously reclusive".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brouwn, Stanley 1935 births 2017 deaths Dutch conceptual artists