James Brown

(American, 1951–2020)

James Brown is an American artist known for his semi-figurative paintings. Influenced by primitive art and early Modernism, Brown’s works have the ingenuous quality of a child’s drawing. Born on October 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, CA, he went on to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the late 1970s. Relocating to New York in the early 1980s, Brown became a part of a scene of painters that included Neil Jenney and Judith Linhares. By the end of the decade, he had returned to Paris, where his paintings were understood within the context of Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut. In the years that followed, Brown has employed ceramics, collage, and other media to produce works that have a cosmic quality. The artist currently lives and works between Mérida, Mexico and Paris, France. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, among others.