Art and Activism
Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest
Contemporary Arts Center. 44 E. Sixth St.
Opens Friday, Jan. 31, continues through May 25.
More info at cincycac.org
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) presents the first comprehensive museum retrospective of the artist, activist, and educator Vivian Browne (1929–1993).
Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest, opening Friday, highlights Browne’s contributions to 20th-century American art through her distinctive approach to color and form, her challenging of traditional categories of abstraction and figuration, and her work at the intersections of art and social commentary. Bringing together 45 paintings and works on paper across several key series, including previously unknown works and ephemera from the artist’s estate, the exhibition uncovers the depth of Browne’s four-decade-long career and her enduring commitment to activism and education.
With an expressive hand and expansive worldview, Browne navigated the Black Arts and Feminist movements with passion and purpose, joining artist groups that advocated for inclusion. Informed by what Browne described as “emotional landscape(s),” her paintings and prints address the politics of race and gender, respond to her international experiences, and reflect on her love of nature and ecological concerns. Although she was immersed in the vibrant New York arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s alongside renowned artists such as Faith Ringgold, Norman Lewis, Emma Amos, and Robert Blackburn, the true scope of her work remains largely under-recognized.
Co-organized by the CAC and The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), and co-curated by Amara Antilla and Adrienne L. Childs, the exhibition will be on view at the CAC through May 25, before moving to the Phillips Collection this summer.
“The CAC has a rich history of presenting early one-person shows of influential women artists, such as Marina Abramović (1987) and Lorna Simpson (1993), as well as being known nationally known for showing Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial The Perfect Moment at the height of the 1990s Culture Wars, making us well-positioned to facilitate a deeper understanding of Vivian Browne’s artwork and activism,” says Christina Vassallo, Alice & Harris Weston Director at the Contemporary Arts Center. “We are honored to present Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest and introduce scholars and visitors to the art and activism of Vivian Browne, an African American artist whose work remains little known despite her significant impact and ideas on race, gender, social justice and ecology that still reverberate today.”
My Kind of Protest assembles works inspired by Browne’s extensive travels, including in China, Africa, and California. Her journeys are documented in a visual travelogue of paintings and drawings, with her African Paintings series evoking a dual sense of yearning and estrangement from ancestral lands. Politically charged pieces such as her Little Men series from the late 1960s offer a poignant portrayal of whiteness and patriarchy. The series, consisting of 100 works, 70 of which still survive, uses grotesque and humorous exaggeration to reveal the sinister nature of racism and toxic masculinity through satirical portraits of white men as irritable and infantile.
Through her portrait, landscape, and abstract paintings, Browne created works that provide social and political commentary from her perspective as a Black female artist. Inspired by her local communities and global travels, her art reflects how her life experiences were shaped by the intersectional forces of racial and patriarchal oppression. Her art resisted the political expectations to focus on Black nationalism, instead being more of a personal expression as a Black female artist. As she stated in a 1985 interview, “Black art is political. If it’s not political, it’s not Black art.”
“The Phillips Collection has long been a platform for American artists like Vivian Browne who innovate, motivate, and challenge the status quo,” says Jonathan P. Binstock, Vradenburg Director & CEO at The Phillips Collection. “We are excited to present Vivian Browne’s dynamic body of work to explore how it enhances our understanding of the complexity and beauty of American art and its diverse histories, particularly in relation to issues of feminism, power and politics, race, gender, and the natural environment.”
As a politically engaged artist, Browne was involved in several activist organizations. She served as an initial director of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) and joined Where We At (WWA) in 1971, a community of Black women artists striving to create space for those overlooked by the predominantly male-led Black Arts Movement. Additionally, she was an active member of the Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA), Soho20 Gallery, and the Heresies Collective, a feminist publication exploring the intersections of art, feminism, and politics.
“Vivian Browne's work, often overlooked in her time, reflects how she navigated the expectations placed on Black artists in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” says Adrienne L. Childs, Senior Consulting Curator at The Phillips Collection. “Her protest was about resisting the expectations placed upon her as a Black artist during a time when many were expected to produce figurative work. Instead, she advocated for her own individual artistry, blending personal narrative with broader social commentary. This unique approach makes her work incredibly relevant today, inviting viewers to engage with complex themes that resonate deeply.”
Browne was deeply committed to education, beginning her teaching career in the 1960s, when she taught humanities in primary and secondary schools. From 1971 to 1992, she served as a faculty member at Rutgers University in Newark, where she taught contemporary Black and Hispanic art, painting, and other fine arts courses. As an artist, teacher, and activist, she cultivated global experiences, traveling extensively across the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, and China. During the mid-20th century, a global movement emerged within the Black diaspora, celebrating Black creativity and the synergies among Black artistic expressions in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. For many Black American creatives in the 1960s and 1970s—the years in which Browne came of age as an artist and activist—the idea of Africa held powerful, multifaceted implications.
The exhibition also highlights her late-career paintings and works on paper from the late 1980s and early 1990s, which reflect her attentiveness to the interplay between humanity and the natural world. These include lyrical landscapes and grid-like compositions juxtaposing electrical towers with ancient sequoia trees. “My painting is informed and determined by many spatial experiences,” Browne wrote, “top edge of the world vistas, engulfing underwater depths, mystical inner earth enclosures.” Her late-career works embrace a distinctive form of gestural abstraction, embodying a deep intimacy and reverence for nature.
“Browne’s art transcends simple categorization; it is both a celebration of her unique experiences and a powerful critique of societal norms,” says Amara Antilla, Independent Curator. “By embracing her love of color, gesture, and abstraction, she carved her own path. Her dynamic use of color and form challenges viewers to reconsider their understanding of art and activism, making her an essential figure in American art history.”