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    Lost Art Salon
    • | All Art
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      Richard Caldwell Brewer

      Richard Caldwell Brewer

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      Richard Caldwell Brewer (1923-2014)

      • The Collection
      • The Story
      • Ephemera
      • “…There has been no substantial study of the male nude since el Greco. Lately in N.Y. a fashionable flurry of the mocking, the bitter, the clinical. Where is the vision of Matisse, the power of exorcism of Picasso, Roualt, Soutine? ..Helion told me years ago in Paris, “Paint what you most love and most hate—which may be the same thing.” I strive for this and occasionally achieve it. “ - Richard Caldwell Brewer

        Part of the second generation New York School, Richard Caldwell Brewer along with his charmed circle of artist friends, represent the lesser known art scene that emerged in the wake of abstract expressionism. Close friends and contemporaries with art world notables, such as Robert De Niro Sr., Nell Blaine, Leland Bell, and Samuel Wagstaff, Brewer’s career is marked by a desire to foster an artistic community and creative dialogue. His move to California in the 1950s brought him in touch with San Francisco’s vibrant Beat poet scene, and he maintained his ties to NYC traveling between the two coasts regularly. A selection of his works on paper and writings are in the collection of the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley, an archive that also includes the work of Mark Twain and Joan Brown, among others and he was most prominently shown in a solo exhibition at the Top Floor Gallery in 1979. Much of his work has been acquired by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries - the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world.

        While deeply influenced by their predecessors, such as Pollack and de Kooning, the second generation New York School painters pushed back against the tsunami that was pure abstraction, looking towards, and often backwards, to Europe for inspiration. Modernists such as Matisse, Picasso, Braques, and Derain, informed their work and played an influential aesthetic role. In many ways, the emphasis on figuration and the object present in the second generation’s work, may be seen, at least ideologically, as a sister movement to Bay Area Figuration, while remaining distinctively ‘New York’ in essence. Caught between the seminal Abstract Expressionist movement, and the emergence of Pop Art, Brewer’s work exists in a liminal realm, incorporating expressionism and modernism, while almost always returning to figure. Brewer’s preferred subject matter, the male nude, may have also contributed to his obscurity in the art world. Expressive, vibrant, and unreservedly erotic, Brewer’s depiction of the male figure subverted the traditional feminized voyeurism seen in modern art while simultaneously forefronting queer visibility.

        Richard Caldwell Brewer, born July 31st, 1923, in Washington D.C. grew up in Rockville, Maryland, in a historic farmhouse. While attending high school in D.C., Brewer met fellow artist/painter Leland Bell, who would soon become a lifelong friend. In the years that followed, Brewer studied at the Corcoran Art Gallery School as well as the Abbott Commercial Art Gallery, both in Washington D.C.

        While he did manage to avoid the military draft due to his asthma, his ability to speak fluent French landed him in the intelligence corps stationed in Algiers. It was here that Brewer met the well-known French author Andre Gide, “in a pissoir”. Brewer references Gide’s influence on his work in his 1979 resume, in which he credits part of his informal arts education to conversations with Andre Gide in Morocco. He states, “Though mainly self-educated, informal study has included associations and discussions with Karl Knaths, at the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C. (catalog); Jean Helion in New York and Paris: (catalogs, reviews); Andre Gide in Morocco during the writing of his monograph on Poussin.”

        Just before the end of the war, Brewer enlisted in the Merchant Marines, then remained in Paris, continuing his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. There he studied under the figurative painter, Jean Souverbie (b. 1891- d. 1981), in 1951. An excellent draftsman, this period in post-war Paris is also marked by his expressive graphite sketches Brewer made of his friends and lovers. Beginning in high school, and throughout his life and career, Brewer journaled regularly, cataloging his experiences, sexual history, and various ‘pick-ups’, creating an unintentional time capsule of queer experience and identity in the mid-20th century. Brewer’s time in Europe would influence his aesthetic and artistic sensibilities for the duration of his career.

        Like many artists during this time period, Brewer made the migration to New York City, initially residing at the infamous Sloane House YMCA (allegedly known for attracting all kinds of nomads and travelers, from the creative to the nefarious), working as a department store window designer. It was here, in the ever bustling and rapidly growing city, where he cultivated his cohort of similarly European-inclined artists and writers. This inner circle included the likes of Samuel Wagstaff, Robert De Niro Sr., Virginia Admiral, Nell Blaine, Leland Bell and Louisa Matthiasdottir - many of whom were students of the influential abstract painter Hans Hoffman. It was here that Brewer was introduced to De Niro. De Niro, who had not publicly revealed his sexual orientation, formed a friendship with Brewer, while their potential romance remained unrequited. However, the intimacy of their friendship is especially palpable, as evidenced by their correspondences. De Niro writes,

        ”…As I look back (and I often do) at the restaurant where we met, had little to recommend it except you, sitting across from me, dipping your doughnut in espresso, your hair combed back on one side and over your eye on the other, wearing that quasi cashmere sweater with the inscription “I left my heart in S.F. (S.F. I took to be San Francisco). At that time, I think, your heart was intact and in your possession. You didn’t even know that I wanted it. I hardly knew it yet, myself. What’s become of us since?…."

        Most of the artists that inhabited his particular art world were also gay, some more forward with their sexuality than others. The work of many of these artists was rendered marginalized and somewhat elusive, perhaps in part due to their orientation, but most likely at the hands of the flurry of abstract expressionism and Pop Art that took hold of the art world. Their work instead appealed to a particular European nostalgia, adhering to the more traditional School of Paris aesthetic characterized by early 20th century innovations such as cubism, fauvism, abstraction and surrealism. Brewer was particularly drawn to and inspired by the bold, expressive and painterly work of Matisse, Picasso, and Derain’s later work, as well as the work of painter Jean Helion, whom he would later befriend.

        Brewer’s career as an artist was also largely influenced by his bi-coastal relationship with the art world. In 1952 and 1953, Brewer moved to San Francisco, mixing in with the emerging Beat poet scene. He supported himself in bars and taverns, producing and selling graphite portraits of the patrons he would encounter. Sometimes he was accompanied by the artist Robert Lavigne, who Allen Ginsberg mockingly referred to as the “court painter” to the Beats. Other significant members of Brewer’s west coast social sphere included poets Robert Duncan (partner to the artist Jess (Collins)), Phillip Whalen, and Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder. Brewer’s mother, Rosalind Brewer, too made her way to the west coast after separating from his father John Brewer, an insurance broker in Maryland, settling in a cottage owned by their relatives in Tiburon, California. His father’s death followed shortly, in 1954, and with the inheritance from his estate, Brewer purchased the cottage from his aunt and uncle, Rear Admiral Robert and Elizabeth Lewis, allowing his mother to reside there for the duration of her life.

        While he did return to New York, the Bay Area would eventually become Brewer’s permanent residence, making his home/studio in an apartment on Polk Street in San Francisco in the 1970s. In the years to come, his ongoing model, muse, and companion Steve Krstich would move in, and the beginnings of their creative yet tumultuous relationship would unfold. In 1974, Rosalind passed away, leaving the cottage empty. Brewer and Krstich promptly moved in. Krstich, who identified as straight, and Brewer’s platonic yet intense artistic relationship shaped much of his work produced during this period. Twenty-six years his junior, their bond was most significantly that of muse and artist, as well as student and teacher. The cottage became his anchor, isolated, yet a generative art making space. Perhaps in the hopes of assuaging this isolation, Brewer maintained a night job in San Francisco as a janitor for an architecture firm, traveling by ferry in the evenings into the city. Back at the cottage, he would host many of his poet and artist friends, such as the film critic Pauline Kael, Samuel Wagstaff and Robert De Niro Sr.

        The culmination of Brewer’s career occurred at the Top Floor Gallery in 1979, a solo show featuring his figurative paintings, many homo-erotic in their expression. The male nude dominated Brewer’s painting, rendered in thickly applied oil, energetic and expressive brushwork, with an emphasis on primary colors, crescendoing to create dynamic and affronting figurative works, in contrast to the historically demure and submissive female body as depicted in the paintings of his modernist idols. His work certainly made a splash, garnering the attention of notable San Francisco Chronicle art critic, Thomas Albright, who wrote, “…audacious in a different way…(with) an emphasis on genitalia.” De Niro too wrote favorably of the show, publishing an essay on the work and Brewer’s practice of rendering the male figure, writing “He is in the tradition of the great Japanese and Indian masters, of Courbet’s paintings of lesbians making love, the prose of Genet, and the little known erotic poems of Verlaine.” The poeticism present throughout De Niro’s essay speaks volumes to the artistic congenial respect the two held for one another, as well as the return to the classic modernist triumphs in art as a diving point and common referent in his work. The emphasis in Brewer’s work, and that of his NY circle, is not concerned with the cutting edge, or the conceptual, but rather the properties of painting itself, especially as explored by those seminal modernists in the late 19th and early 20th century. These early modernists were the first to break from illusionary painting, and understand the emotive properties they were capable of rendering by virtue of the medium itself. Brewer embodies this in his work, in which the quality of the paint itself - its thick or thinness, the way in which its applied, its hue - all contain a unique and specific intensity, that when combined, harmonizes, clashes, or competes - all contributing the complexities and emotional depth of the work.

        The work featured in our collection reflects a selective sampling from three distinct periods of the artist’s life. Most of the drawings on view date back to the late 1940s and early 1950s; graphite gestural sketches of people Brewer encountered during his time in Paris and San Francisco, most of which feature young men as the primary subject matter. The paintings on view span the mid-late 20th and early 21st centuries. The former is largely figurative, influenced greatly by the European modernist aesthetic. Always painting from life, Brewer’s figures possess an immediacy as well an intimacy, evoking the mutual gaze inherent from working with a live model. A mutual gaze intimates the artists confrontation with the actualized subject, creating a body of work that is enigmatically charged. Thickly applied paint, gestural brushstrokes, and hard edged outlines work to sculpt the form, and colors range from the earthy to vibrant jewel tones, consisting of variations of blue, red, and yellow. Both the quality of applied paint and the use of primary colors foreshadow what would be Brewer’s last group of paintings - pure abstraction. There is a straight-out-of-the-tube quality to these works, each existing as its own layer, independent from the surrounding colors. Overlapping textured swirls of color evoke the abstract expressionist aesthetic that dominated the New York art world in the mid-century, perhaps suggesting a re-exploration into the art making practices of Brewer’s youth, that at the time, he concertedly avoided.

        We would like to thank Robert Brokl and Alfred Crofts for bringing this historically significant collection to Lost Art Salon.
      View All _|_ View Available _|_ View Sold
      Please Note: All pieces purchased before our August 7th Exhibition Reception are on hold for the show and will ship out starting the week of the 26th.
      Monochromatic New York Sailor Portrait Studies <br>1952 Graphite <br><br>#B6162
      Monochromatic New York Sailor Portrait Studies
      1952 Graphite

      #B6162
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $750
      Sold
      Monochromatic New York Portrait Studies <br>1952 Graphite <br><br>#B5721
      Monochromatic New York Portrait Studies
      1952 Graphite

      #B5721
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $750
      Sold
      Abstract Expressionist Painting in Primary Colors <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#B5680
      Abstract Expressionist Painting in Primary Colors
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #B5680
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,450
      Sold
      Frenetic Abstract Expressionist Painting <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#B5516
      Frenetic Abstract Expressionist Painting
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #B5516
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $3,475
      Cabaret Dancer <br>1950s Graphite <br><br>#B4793
      Cabaret Dancer
      1950s Graphite

      #B4793
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $775
      Fancy Parisian Figure with Hat <br>1951 Graphite <br><br>#B4798
      Fancy Parisian Figure with Hat
      1951 Graphite

      #B4798
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,175
      Sold
      <i>Bill</i> <br>1950s Graphite <br><br>#B4799
      Bill
      1950s Graphite

      #B4799
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $895
      Sold
      Blue Abstract Expressionist Painting <br>Early 2000s Oil <br><br>#B4170
      Blue Abstract Expressionist Painting
      Early 2000s Oil

      #B4170
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,750
      Sold
      Vivid Abstract Expressionist Painting <br>Early 2000s Oil <br><br>#B4173
      Vivid Abstract Expressionist Painting
      Early 2000s Oil

      #B4173
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,565
      Sold
      Cool Abstract Expressionist Painting <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8663
      Cool Abstract Expressionist Painting
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8663
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $2,295
      <I>Rosalind</I> Portrait of the Artist’s Mother <br>1985 Oil <br><br>#A8838
      Rosalind Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
      1985 Oil

      #A8838
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $4,975
      Sold
      Vintage Portrait Study <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8424
      Vintage Portrait Study
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8424
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,145
      Sold
      Modernist Large-Scale Abstract <br>1981 Oil <br><br>#A8933
      Modernist Large-Scale Abstract
      1981 Oil

      #A8933
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $5,495
      Expressive Abstract in Primary Colors <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8950
      Expressive Abstract in Primary Colors
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8950
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $2,495
      Sold
      Brushstrokes in Motion <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8944
      Brushstrokes in Motion
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8944
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $985
      Sold
      Frenetic Expressive Abstraction <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8942
      Frenetic Expressive Abstraction
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8942
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $925
      Sold
      Shapes & Gestures in Primary Colors <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8941
      Shapes & Gestures in Primary Colors
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8941
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $875
      Sold
      Braced in the Wind - Modernist Drawing <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8477
      Braced in the Wind - Modernist Drawing
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8477
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $695
      Surreal Geometric Construction <br>1946 Graphite <br><br>#A8413
      Surreal Geometric Construction
      1946 Graphite

      #A8413
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $775
      At the Bar, Modernist Scene <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8472
      At the Bar, Modernist Scene
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8472
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $645
      Quiet Contemplation <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8419
      Quiet Contemplation
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8419
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $795
      Sold
      Red & Blue Gestural Deconstruction <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8452
      Red & Blue Gestural Deconstruction
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8452
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,285
      Sold
      Modernist Female Portrait <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8420
      Modernist Female Portrait
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8420
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $995
      Sold
      Bold Abstract Expressionist Painting <br>Early 2000s Acrylic <br><br>#A8879
      Bold Abstract Expressionist Painting
      Early 2000s Acrylic

      #A8879
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,850
      Sold
      Modernist Portrait in Profile <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8410
      Modernist Portrait in Profile
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8410
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $845
      Sold
      <i>Paris</i>, Man with Scarf <br>1940-50s Charcoal <br><br>#A8412
      Paris, Man with Scarf
      1940-50s Charcoal

      #A8412
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,195
      Sold
      Modernist Male Portrait Detail <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8411
      Modernist Male Portrait Detail
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8411
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $795
      Sold
      Abstracted Modernist Portrait <br>1940 Oil <br><br>#A8644
      Abstracted Modernist Portrait
      1940 Oil

      #A8644
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $2,295
      Sold
      Reclining Abstracted Nude <br>1983 Oil <br><br>#A8539
      Reclining Abstracted Nude
      1983 Oil

      #A8539
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $2,895
      Sold
      Expressive Male Portrait <br>1975 Oil <br><br>#A8749
      Expressive Male Portrait
      1975 Oil

      #A8749
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $2,795
      Sold
      <i>Paris</i> <br>1940-50s Charcoal <br><br>#A8421
      Paris
      1940-50s Charcoal

      #A8421
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,295
      Sold
      Vintage New York Drawing <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8422
      Vintage New York Drawing
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8422
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $895
      Sold
      Quiet Portrait Study <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8423
      Quiet Portrait Study
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8423
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $1,175
      Sold
      Expressionist Geometric Abstract <br>1940s Graphite <br><br>#A8448
      Expressionist Geometric Abstract
      1940s Graphite

      #A8448
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $995
      Sold
      Playful Modernist Face <br>1946 Pastel <br><br>#A8426
      Playful Modernist Face
      1946 Pastel

      #A8426
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $895
      Sold
      Vintage Drawing of Two Society Ladies <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8473
      Vintage Drawing of Two Society Ladies
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8473
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $675
      Saxophone Player, New York <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8533
      Saxophone Player, New York
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8533
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $595
      Modernist Seated Gentleman <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8535
      Modernist Seated Gentleman
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8535
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $645
      Sold
      Hectic Vintage Abstract Sketch <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8466
      Hectic Vintage Abstract Sketch
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8466
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $695
      Dreamy Male Portrait Study <br>1949-50 Charcoal <br><br>#A8460
      Dreamy Male Portrait Study
      1949-50 Charcoal

      #A8460
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $745
      Sold
      Seated Figure Sketch <br>1940-50s Ink & Graphite <br><br>#A8464
      Seated Figure Sketch
      1940-50s Ink & Graphite

      #A8464
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $545
      Relaxed Male Portrait Study <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8537
      Relaxed Male Portrait Study
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8537
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $645
      Sold
      Colorful Floral Still Life <br>1940-50s Pastel <br><br>#A8463
      Colorful Floral Still Life
      1940-50s Pastel

      #A8463
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $495
      A Confident Man - Sketch <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8471
      A Confident Man - Sketch
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8471
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $595
      Sold
      Abstracted Model in the Artist's Studio <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8467
      Abstracted Model in the Artist's Studio
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8467
      Richard Caldwell Brewer $735
      Comrades in Arms <br>1953 Graphite <br><br>#A8468
      Comrades in Arms
      1953 Graphite

      #A8468
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $645
      Sold
      Minimalist Tabletop Still Life <br>1948 Graphite <br><br> #A8465
      Minimalist Tabletop Still Life
      1948 Graphite

      #A8465
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $495
      Sold
      Two Surreal Female Figures <br>1940-50s Graphite <br><br>#A8478
      Two Surreal Female Figures
      1940-50s Graphite

      #A8478
      Richard Caldwell Brewer Sold $685
      Sold
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