WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN (1919-2012)

William Theophilus Brown was an artist known for his participation in the “Second Generation” of Bay Area Figurative movement. It was significant that the movement occurred in the Bay Area, because all others had almost exclusively originated in New York. In the late 1950s, this group decided to move away from the popular Abstract Expressionist style, and return to figuration, against the grain of art trends at the time. Other notable members of the movement were Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Wayne Thiebaud, and Elmer Bischoff, among several others. Brown studied painting in New York and Paris, during which time he met Picasso, Braque, Giacommetti, and de Kooning.