Byron Browne was a painter, designer and sculptor born in Yonkers,
New York in 1907. He died in 1961 in New York City a celebrated
modernist.
He studied at the National Academy of Design, NYC (1924-1928)
and with Karfunkle, Aiken and Zorach. He was a member of the American
Abstract Artists Group of 1938; American Artists Congress; Allied
American Artists and the Yonkers Art Association. He won his first
prize at the National Academy in 1928 and many other prizes followed.
From 1933-1970, he was given over 60 solo exhibitions and his
reputation grew by leaps and bounds.
In 1927 Browne began to experiment with abstraction and he later
destroyed all of his earlier representational canvases because
he thought it was too old hat and tainted. During the mid-thirties
he was a Works Project Administration (WPA) painter and he became
extremely active in the American Abstract Artists Group. During
the 1930s, he was painting in the Cubist style and by the 1940s
he was painting in a biomorphic style influenced by Arp and Miro.
From 1952-1961 Browne was active in Provincetown, Massachusetts,
where he combined both painting styles in a gestured manner in
murals and he carved stone memorials. He was instructor of painting
at the Arts Student's League (NYC) from 1948-1959 and taught Advanced
Painting at New York University from 1959 until his death in 1961.
His birth name is George Byron Browne and many of
his early works are signed in that manner.
