Alice Dalton Brown
Quick Facts
Biography
Alice Dalton Brown (born 1939, Danville, Pennsylvania) is an American realist painter who grew up in Ithaca, New York. Dalton Brown began her studies in France at the Académie Julian in Paris and at the L'Université de Grenoble. She entered Cornell University as an English major and later transferred to Oberlin College, where she received her BA in studio art in 1962. While at Oberlin, she studied art history with Wolfgang Stechow. From 1970 to 2005, she lived and worked in New York City. Dalton Brown currently lives in the Hudson Valley and in King Ferry, New York.
While living in rural upstate New York and after moving to New York City, Dalton Brown painted and drew barns from 1965 to 1977. A 2006 review of her solo retrospective of works on paper described these as offering "a moving, somewhat cinematic perspective on the power and vagaries of memory." Becoming increasingly abstract, the barn imagery evolved into paintings like Shadow of Tree and Table, 1977.
Dalton Brown is most interested in the evocative qualities of a subject and its personal associations as seen in the paintings Grand Westfield Porch, 1980 and My Westfield Window, 1980, and the pastels Retreat Grasses, 1990, and Aurora, Six Columns, 1991. Expressing mood, attitude, and ideas are key to understanding the meaning of her work: "The visual tension between controlled, linear, constructed elements and textured, disordered, active areas has always intrigued me. I still like to compose my images with these contrasts which I think have symbolic implications as well as visual interest and compositional strength."
Among her best known works are paintings and pastels of light and water often executed on a very large scale, such as Horizon, 2000. Dalton Brown’s ability to capture light playing across a wall, on the surface of water, or passing through translucent drapery is a signature motif and visible in Quiet Breathing, 2011. Her "eye for the supernal in the everyday" is displayed in Whisper, 2001 and Blues Come Through, 1999. Framing devices are removed and location becomes ambiguous in paintings such as Long Golden Day, 2000 and Easy Blues, 2014.
Recent paintings and pastels depict themes inspired by Dalton Brown's 2015 Visiting Artist Residency at the American Academy in Rome. Pastels like American Academy in Rome #7, 2015 extend ideas begun in the 1990s in Italy in works such as Tuscan Patio, 1994.
Education
- 1957 L'Académie Julian, Paris
- 1957 L'Université de Grenoble, France
- 1958 Cornell University
- 1962 BA, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
One person exhibitions
- 2014: Language of Angels, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2013: Summer Breeze, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
- 2012: Old New Borrowed Blue, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2010: Nocturnes and Diurnes, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2008: Friends Forever, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2007: Selection 1965-2007, General Electric Company, Fairfield, Connecticut
- 2006: Barns 1965–1976, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2004: Celebration: A Survey 1976-22004, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2002: A Clear Light, Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 2000: Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 1999: Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
- 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998: Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 1988: William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
- 1987: Fischbach Gallery, New York
- 1985: Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York
- 1982, 1983, 1984: A. M. Sachs Gallery, New York
- 1979: New York State Council on the Arts Award Exhibition
- 1978: Private exhibition, Holmbush Road, London
- 1976: Bartholet Gallery, New York
- 1975: Mari Gallery, Mamaroneck, New York
Selected group exhibitions
- 2011: The Value of Water, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, New York
- 2007: Image and Word, Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Museum of Art, Lafayette, Louisiana
- 2006: Photorealist Paintings from the Sydney and Waldo Bestoff Collection, Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Museum of Art, Lafayette, Louisiana
- 2001-02: Re-Presenting Representation V, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, and Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York
- 2001: Reflections, Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri
- 1997: Realism in 20th-Century American Painting, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine
- 1996-97: Art and the Law, Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis; Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida; Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan; Alexander Houge Gallery, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH
- 1990: Collector's Gallery XXIII, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
- 1987: In the Country, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
- 1986: Members Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
- 1985: Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ohio
- 1982: Views by Women Artists, Women's Caucus for Art, New York Chapter, New York
- 1982: Architectural Images, Summit Art Center, Summit, New Jersey
- 1981: Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
- 1978: New York State Council on tArt he Arts regional exhibition, Cayuga County, New York
- 1977: New York State Council on the Arts regional exhibition, Cayuga County, New York
- 1976: Providence Print Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island
Museum collections
- Allen Memorial Art Museum Wiki Page | Allen Memorial Art Museum]
- Asheville Art Museum Wiki Page | Asheville Art Museum]
- Frost Art Museum Wiki Page, | Frost Art Museum]
- Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Wiki Page | Herbert F. Johnson Museum]
- Maier Museum of Art Wiki Page | Maier Museum of Art]
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Wiki Page | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]
- Minneapolis Institute of Art Wiki Page | Minneapolis Institute of Art]
- Nassau County Museum of Art Wiki Page | Nassau County Museum of Art]
- Newark Public Library Wiki Page | Newark Public Library]
- New York Public Library Main Branch Wiki Page | New York Public Library]
- Springfield Art Museum Wiki Page | Springfield Art Museum]
- Tampa Museum of Art Wiki Page | Tampa Museum of Art]
- Telfair Museum of Art Wiki Page | Telfair Museums]
Selected bibliography
Articles
- Fuchs, Reinhard, Women in Art, vol. 1, Ferdinand Berger Publishing, 2013, p. 335. [1]
- Goldsmith, Margie, and Mathews, Richard, "Making Miracles of Light and Shadow: An Interview with Alice Dalton Brown," Tampa Review, no. 40, University of Tampa Press, 2010, pp. 15–17
- Gladstone, Valerie, "Review: New York Alice Dalton Brown," ARTnews, Summer 2010
- Tillery, Carolyn, "AT&T Exhibits Art Collection at Dallas Woman's Museum," The Dallas Morning News, November 24, 2007
- Cristiano, Joshua, "Reviews: New York Alice Dalton Brown," ARTnews, December 2006, p. 152
- Grosz, David, "Art in Brief, Alice Dalton Brown: Barns 1965-1976," The New York Sun, September 21, 2006, p. 19
- Ebony, David, "Art Show Shines in Big Apple," Art in America, April, 2005
- Cooper, James, "Alice Dalton Brown," American Arts Quarterly, spring 2004, p. 60
- Henry, Gerrit, "Alice Dalton Brown at Fischbach," Art in America, July 2003, p. 96
- Disch, Thomas, "Fashionable Art," Weekly Standard 8:13, December 9, 2002, pp. 35–37
- Diggory, Anne, "Layers of Clarity and Ambiguity," American Artist, October 2001, pp. 40–47
- Cooper, James, "Enchanted Sanctuary: Alice Dalton Brown," American Arts Quarterly, spring 2000, pp. 3–7
- Howell, Camille, "Light, life spill from Brown's artwork," The Springfield (Mo.) Newsleader, 29 October 1999
- "Oprah does the Art Show," The Art Newspaper, London, April 1996
- "Oprah without a Figure," ARTnews, May 1996, p. 28
- "Alice Brown's Recent Spaces at Fischbach," Antiques and the Arts Weekly, 24 November 1995, p. 92
- Bell, J. Bowyer, "Review: The Critical State of Visual Art," New York 3:14 (April 15, 1995): 35-36
- Weiss, Paulette. "Art & Antiques," Where (New York), August 1995, p. 24
- Howard, Henrietta. "Private Views: Inside and Outside," House & Garden (British ed.), January 1991, pp. 88–89
- von Wiest, Powell. "Art & Antiques," Where (New York), March 1991, p. 11
- Brenson, Michael. "Review/Museums," New York Times (May 5, 1989), p. C28
- "Brown At William Sawyer Gallery" The New Fillmore, June 1988, p. 3:2
- "On the Wall and Off the Wall: Neighborhood Artists and Galleries," San Francisco Chronicle, 7 June 1988
- Watkins, Eileen. "Art," The Star-Ledger, 23 December 1988
- Cooper, James F. "Beautiful Flame Burns Under Brown's Victorian Facade," New York Tribune, 6 March 1987
- Cooper, James F. "New Exhibit at Sachs shows Alice Dalton Brown," New York Tribune, 29 June 1984
- Henry, Gerrit. "Alice Dalton Brown," ARTnews, 1 November 1983, p. 207
- Cooper, James F. "Alice Dalton Brown," New York Tribune, 13 May 1983, 6B
Exhibition catalogues and books
- Ainsworth, Maryan W. The Language of Angels: 20 March - 26 April 2014
- Wiles, Stephanie. Summer Breeze, Paintings & Drawings by Alice Dalton Brown: 18 May - 18 August 2013.
- Kingsley, April. The Paintings of Alice Dalton Brown, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2002.