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Hilton Brown (1938-)

Screen Series, #17 "Narberth," by Hilton Brown, 1968-69. Acrylic paint on canvas. 100 x 100" lozenge. Collection of the artist.
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Hanover, by Hilton Brown, 1976. Acrylic paint on canvas. 50 x 50". Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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Brain, Heart, Penis, by Hilton Brown, 2003. Charcoal and soft pastel on 3 sheets of Zaan paper. Each sheet 28 3/4 x 24 1/8". Private collection.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Momence, Iliinois
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Abstract; Figural; Murals
Active Dates and Place: Baltimore, Maryland, 1968-89
Places of Residence: Baltimore, Maryland, 1968-89
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Painter, educator, author, curator and gay rights advocate Hilton Brown settled in Baltimore, Maryland to become an assistant professor of visual arts at Goucher College in Towson in 1968; a couple of years later he became an associate professor, full professor and chair of the Department of Visual Arts there. In 1973, he completed two murals on Baltimore City walls as a part of a National Endowment for the Arts-funded competition that was run by the Baltimore Civic Design Commission. Commissions received from Baltimore institutions and organizations are as follows:

Goucher College, Towson, MD: Graphic design for "Program for Human Resources" campaign, 1972.
City of Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.: Murals for two Baltimore City exterior walls, North Ave. at Park Ave., (30 x 30'), 1973-74, and 1758 Park Avenue (30' x 60'), 1975. (both no longer extant)
1% for Art program competition of the City of Baltimore Civic Design Commission: Two interior murals (9 x 64' and 9 x 12') for School 84, The Thomas Johnson Elementary School, Baltimore, 1980.

Hilton Brown was born in 1938 in Momence, Illinois, a small farming town about fifty miles south of Chicago. After graduating from the Momence school system in 1956 as salutatorian of his class, he attended Goodman Theater School of Drama of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a year and a half on a full scholarship as a theatrical design major.

Deciding that a career in the theater did not fit his interests and after working in the children's book illustration department of Follett book publishing company for several years while attending night and Saturday classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, Hilton Brown then went on to receive full scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1959-64). Brown attended The University of Chicago in 1959 and the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1962-63 where he studied Liberal Arts. He also studied on a full scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine during the summers of 1960 and 1961. Brown was the recipient of the George T. and Isabelle Brown Foreign Traveling Fellowship in Painting and the Ponte del'Arte Prize for Travel from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1962). He received the Leopold Schepp Foundation Fellowship for graduate study (1963). Brown received his professional diploma and certificate in drawing and painting in 1962, his BFA in painting and printmaking in 1963, and his MFA in painting, drawing, printmaking and art history in 1964. He studied with painters Elmer Bischoff, Alex Katz, Henry Varnum Poor, among others, and art historians Kathleen Blacksheer, Robert Pincus-Witten and Whitney Halsted. Additional study continued later at the Maryland Institute College of Art (1975), University of Delaware (1980), and independently in Europe.

Hilton Brown began his teaching career in 1962 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, (1962-65). He has also taught at the School of Fine Arts of Washington University, St. Louis (1965-68); Goucher College, Baltimore, (1968-1978), where he was also Chairman of the Department of Visual Arts; and the University of Delaware, Newark (1974 to the present) where he, since 1992, has held the first named professorship of the Harriet T. Baily Professor of Art, Art Conservation, Art History, and Museum Studies. He also served as the Ralph and Bena Mayer Professor of Artists' Techniques (1984-88) when the Mayer Center for Artists' Techniques was located at the University of Delaware.

Hilton Brown has been exhibiting his paintings, drawings, and prints since 1958. He has had more than 20 one-person shows, and his work has been included in over 130 invitational and juried group shows throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. His artwork may be found in the permanent collections of Maryland institutions (as listed below), as well as at Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Macomb County Community College, Detroit, MI and among many other institutional and private collections in this country and abroad.

As a writer Brown has had over 76 articles, a monograph and a book-length exhibition catalog published. He was a contributing editor of American Artist Magazine from 1980 to 1987, writing a column "Looking at Paintings with Hilton Brown." As a specialist in the history of artist's materials and techniques, Brown worked on the papers of the late Ralph Mayer, America's foremost writer on the techniques of art and presented papers on Mayer's contribution to this field for American Institute for Conservation (AIC) in Baltimore (1983) and Los Angeles (1984). For ten years, working as co-curator/co-author with Richard J. Boyle, Professor of Art History at Temple University and former director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Brown organized the exhibition "Milk and Eggs: the American Revival of Brown Tempera Painting, 1930-1950," held in the spring of 2002 at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; Brown co-authored the book-length catalog of the show.

Hilton Brown's commissioned work, in which the focus has been his expertise regarding master artists' materials and techniques, includes:

Department of Education, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: Designed and fabricated two instructional display carts about the Materials and Techniques of Old Master Painting and Sculpture: 1997-98
Docent program, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE: Painted two oil painting reconstructions after paintings in the collection of the Delaware Art Museum by Benjamin West and Dante Gabriel Rossetti for docent education: 2002-05
Film Project: "Breaking Eggs; Making Paint" produced by the Brandywine River Museum and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2005. Brown demonstrated the painting of an egg tempera painting on film after a section of an egg tempera painting by Simone Martini in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

As an openly gay man Brown has been active as an advocate for the human rights of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. Hilton Brown has also written articles about gay art and artists as well as reviews of the visual arts in Baltimore for The Gay Paper, a newspaper published by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore (1980-89) and for Gladnews, the former newsletter of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Delaware (GLAD). At the University of Delaware, he has served on: President's Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity from 1993 to 2000; founding member and chair of the Lesbian Gay and Bisexual and Transgendered Caucus (1992-1999); Benefits for Domestic Partners Committee, 1994-95; Out\Right (1992); Lavender Scholars (1993); Board of Directors of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Delaware; and Education Committee of the Delaware Coalition for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights (1991-94).
Education/Training: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Diploma and Certificate in Fine Arts, 1962; Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1963; Master of Fine Arts, 1964; The Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore: 1975 (fibers, spinning, and weaving); The University of Delaware, Newark: 1980 (photography)
Taught By: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture: Elmer Bischoff, Alex Katz, and Jack Tworkov, fresco painting with Henry Varnum Poor, and painting materials with Reed Kay and Leonard Bocour; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago: drawing with John Fabian, Leroy Neiman, Constantine Pougialis, Isabel MacKinnon, and Robert Lifvendahl; painting with Rudolph Pen, Edward Millman, Zubel Kachadoorian, Douglas Craft, and Paul Wieghardt; art history with Kathleen Blackshear, Whitney Halstead, and Robert Pincus-Witten; etching with Vera Berdich and lithography with Ray Martin
Art-related Employment: partial list:
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL: Instructor in Fine Arts, 1962-65.
Washington University, St. Louis, MO: The School of Fine Arts: Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, 1965-68.
Goucher College, Towson, MD: Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, 1968-71; Associate Professor, 1971-77; Professor, 1977-78; Chairman of Creative Arts Major, 1973-78; Chairman of Department of Visual Arts, 1976-78; Director of Exhibitions, Rosenberg Gallery, 1968-78.
University of Delaware, Newark, DE: Visiting Associate Professor of Art History, 1974-78; Acting Associate Director, Winterthur Art Conservation Program: 1979-80; Ralph and Bena Mayer Professor and Coordinator of the Ralph Mayer Center for Artists' Techniques: 1984-1988; Coordinator of the undergraduate degree program in the Technology of Artistic and Historic Objects, 1980-93; Coordinator of the undergraduate degree program in Art Conservation, 1993-95.
Contemporary Art Accessions Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1968-78.
Artists' Paints and Related Materials Subcommittee DO1.57 of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 1979-1989.
Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC), 1982-89.
National Artists Equity Association (NAEA) to the Inter-Society Color Council: 1985-89.
American Institute for Conservation the International Institute for Conservation and Artists Equity.
Selected References: Boyle, Richard J., Hilton Brown, Richard Newman. Milk and Eggs: The American Revival of Tempera Painting, 1930-1950. (Chadds Ford, Pa.: Brandywine River Museum, in association with the Washington University Press, Seattle), c2002.
Hilton Brown Web site: www.hiltonbrown.com.
Hilton Brown Web site, University of Delaware: www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/prbrown.html
Other Publications: For a complete list of Brown's writings to date, access www.hiltonbrown.com
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Goucher College, Towson, MD; Center Club, One Charles Center, Baltimore, MD
Single-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
Old Town Art Center, Chicago: 1963.
Benjamin Galleries, Chicago: 1963.
Kazimir Gallery, Chicago: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970.
Jewish Community Center, St. Louis: 1966.
South County Bank, St. Louis: 1967.
Webster University, Loretto-Hilton Center, Webster Groves, MO: 1967.
First Federal Savings, St. Louis: 1968.
Hampton School, Lutherville, Maryland, 1969.
Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland, 1969, 1971, 1973.
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 1970.
Center Stage, Baltimore, Maryland, 1972.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1973. .
B. R. Kornblatt Gallery, Inc., Baltimore: 1977, 1978-79.
Leslie-Lohman Gallery, New York City: 1980.
Susan Isaacs Gallery, Wilmington, DE: 1990.
Awards: partial list:
Purchase Prize in Drawing, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1961.
George T. and Isabelle Brown Foreign Traveling Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1962.
Ponte Del'Arte Prize for Travel, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1962.
Leopold Schepp Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1963.
Kotler Prize in Drawing, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 1965.
Ruth Kelso Renfrow Art Club Award, City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, 1965.
E. Bruce Baetjer Award, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1969.
Drawing Prize, "Drawings, 1970," Towson State College, Maryland, 1970.
The Baltimore Museum of Art: E. Bruce Baetjer Award: 1969.
Elizabeth Nitchie Fellowship in the Humanities, Goucher College, 1970.
Towson State University, Towson, MD: Drawing Prize, "Drawings, 1970."
The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bertram S. Berney Award, 1970.
The Baltimore Museum of Art: Pension Planners of Baltimore, Inc. Award, 1971.
The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Three Arts Club of Homeland, Inc. Award, 1971.
Purchase Prize (painting), Ninth Anniversary Annual Invitational Art Exhibit, Center Club, One Charles Center, Baltimore, 1972.
Baltimore Art Director's Club: Place of Honor for graphic design for Goucher College's, "Program for Human Resources" brochure, 1972.
National Art Directors' Club, New York, NY: Silver Medal for graphic design for Goucher College's "Program for Human Resources" brochure, 1972.
Research Grant, Goucher College, 1973.
Center Club, Charles Center, Baltimore: Award for Painting, Salute to Baltimore Artists, 1978.
University Research Grant, University of Delaware: 1979.
University of Delaware, Newark: Ralph and Bena Mayer Professor of Artists' Techniques, first and only recipient of this named professorship, 1984-88.
Inter-Society Color Council: ISCC Certificates of Appreciation, 1990.
Artist Statement: "Since 1977, the subject of my art has been the male body as an expression and exploration of my life as a gay man. Before that I spent the previous twenty as a painter attempting to hide my sexual identity by exploring abstract and nonrepresentational visual ideas. Making art is both personal and cultural expression. It is also, like speech, political."
Artist Contact Information: Hilton Brown Web site, University of Delaware: www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/prbrown.html
Artist Web site: http://www.hiltonbrown.com