Lot 685: Deborah Brown O/C Painting, Mixed Company

Deborah Brown (American/New York, b. 1955) oil on canvas painting with a group of seals who peer out at a girl, shown in silhouette, through the glass wall of an aquarium exhibit, 1993. A figure seated to the girl’s left turns to view the seals. The floor at lower left reflects colorful, mottled light. Signed, titled, and dated to upper tacking edge of canvas and additionally signed to stretcher. Unframed. 48 in H x 65 in W. Note: This painting relates to the artist’s 1994 “Platform Diving” project: a series of mosiacs created for the New York City subway’s Houston Street Station. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, “Brown’s seven glass mosaics are given a whimsical quality, as the artist creates aquatic creatures that act like humans as they wait for the train to arrive at their underwater station. A realistic beluga whale slides behind a commuter to read the newspaper headlines, and in another scene, a manatee waits patiently for a train seen approaching in the tunnel. Turtles dive off a subway platform in the title piece of the series. ‘I wanted to explore the analogy between subway travel and the movement of our fellow creatures through their natural environment,’ Brown says. ‘Underwater creatures navigate a complex spatial array of undersea passageways, much as we maneuver through our own manmade systems. I thought it would be provocative to portray them in a part of our world most closely resembling their own, but involved in activities familiar to us.” (Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority) Biographical Note: “Deborah Brown grew up in California and currently lives in Bushwick/East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a neighborhood she helped pioneer as an artist and where she started Storefront, one of the first artist-run galleries in the neighborhood. Brown has a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Indiana University. Her work is in numerous private, museum and corporate collections and has been written about in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Forum, Art in America, The Wall Street Journal, ARTnews, Juxtapoz Magazine and Galerie Magazine.” (Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority)

PROVENANCE: Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation.

CONDITION: Excellent condition.