Vivian Browne

Vivian E. Browne (1929–1993) was an American artist who was mostly known for her African-American protest paintings, and linking abstraction to nature. She received multiple awards for her work, been an activist, professor, and a founder of many galleries. She received her B.S. in 1950 from Hunter College, New York, and an M.F.A. from Hunter College in 1959. She traveled across Europe and Africa, also studying at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria in 1972. Browne worked at Rutgers University in Newark from 1971 to 1992 as a faculty member of the Arts and Sciences department while continuing as an artist in her own right with shows across the country. Her early painting career was fostered by a scholarship from the New School for Social Research, and a Huntington Hartford Foundation fellowship in 1964, and MacDowell. Browne's work is housed in public and private collections all over the U.S., primarily in New York and California. Most notably her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian with the Robert Blackburn (artist) printmaking workshop, MOMA, the Schomburg Center NYC, Chase Manhattan Bank the John Cotton Dana Library, the Hatch-Billops Collection, the Wadsworth Atheneum, The New York Public Library, and the Harry Belafonte & Rosa Parks private collections. Browne is included in the Center for the Women in the Arts and Humanities virtual exhibit at Rutgers University. Many of Browne's works, particularly those from the 1960s, showcase her dissatisfaction with the struggles of growing up as a disenfranchised black woman. "Black art is political. If it's not political, it's not black art," she said. While she fought for equality, she was not optimistic about attitudes changing soon, and self-categorized her look at art into two categories. "When I am political, I am painting as a black or as a woman or both. Otherwise, I am just a member of the human race." She taught the History of Black Art at Rutgers University, and served as chair of the department from 1975-1978. She served as a Fulbright panelist in 1990. She was also part of the Soho20 Chelsea, a Broome Street gallery, and has been featured in more than 80 group and solo exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Orlando Gallery, and the Black Art Festival in Atlanta.

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