Introduction to an out-of-town girl

Brown attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in the late 1960s, planning to become a professional illustrator. Like many of his peers, he was profoundly influenced by SAIC professors Whitney Halstead and Ray Yoshida. Drawing upon his affection for Chicago’s architecture as well as his love for Art Deco movie theaters, comic books, and children’s toys, he created work with vivid imagery yet sometimes sordid undertones. Upon graduating, Brown won the prestigious Edward L. Ryerson Traveling Fellowship, which allowed him to tour Europe with Christina Ramberg, Philip Hanson, and Yoshida. Today Brown’s Chicago apartment—with the wide variety of objects he collected still intact—is maintained by SAIC as a museum, and his storefront studio has become an exhibition space and laboratory for the school’s Art History, Visual and Critical Studies, and Arts Administration programs.