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Image of The Journey #1

The Journey #1
Painting

1976
84 x 72 in. (213.36 x 182.88 x 6.35 cm)

Joan Brown (San Francisco, California, 1938 - 1990, Proddatur, India)

Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil enamel on canvas
Credit Line: Gift of Norman Lariviere
Accession Number: 1993.13

Exhibition

Joan Brown, November 19, 2022 – March 12, 2023, SFMoMA, San Francisco; May 27, 2023 – September 24, 2023, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; February 7, 2023 – May 1, 2024, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa.

Joan Brown
, May 23 - September 14, 2014, Stair Landing, San José Museum of Art.

This Kind of Bird Flies Backward: Paintings by Joan Brown, October 14, 2011 - March 11, 2012, New Wing, First Floor, Gibson Family and Plaza Galleries, San José Museum of Art.

Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection
, July 30, 2007 - September 9, 2007, San José Museum of Art.

Inside Out: Selections from the Permanent Collection
, November 20, 2004 - July 9, 2006, New Wing, Second Floor, South Metro A and Central Skylight Galleries, San José Museum of Art.

Collection Highlights
, November 2, 2002 - September 12, 2004, New Wing, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, First Floor, San José Museum of Art.

Collecting Our Thoughts: The Community Responds to Art in the Permanent Collection
, June 23, 2001 - September 23, 2001, New Wing, Metro A, Skylight and South Galleries, Second Floor, San José Museum of Art.

Into the 21st Century: Selections from the Permanent Collection
, May 22 -September 12, 1999, Second floor, New Wing, San José Museum of Art.

The Permanent Collection: Recent Acquisitions
, August 5 -September 24, 1995 Second Floor Central, New Wing, San José Museum of Art.

Bad Painting
, January 14 - February 28, 1978, New Museum, New York.

SJMA Label Text


This Kind of Bird Flies Backward: Paintings by Joan Brown (2011-2012)

Joan Brown addressed in her work the most personal and intimate moments of her life, including her romantic relationships with men. After spending the summer of 1976 traveling in Europe, Brown produced “The Journey” series, in which she documented the blossoming of a new romantic relationship abroad. The Journey #1 (1976) shows the beginning of the affair. A man and a woman stride purposefully across the canvas. Their parallel movements indicate their connection but the distance between them emphasizes their separateness and the ambiguity of a new relationship. Rather than focused on one another, each looks ahead toward an uncertain future. The painting suggests that physical travel is a metaphor for a more internal journey.


Inside Out: Selections from the Permanent Collection (2004-2006)

As a young art student, Joan Brown's teachers encouraged her to paint the things that were most important to her—even if they mattered to no one else. After spending the summer of 1976 traveling in Europe, Brown produced series, in which she documented the blossoming of a new romantic relationship abroad.

The couple she depicts strides purposefully across the canvas, having just begun a love affair. At once together and alone, the ambiguity of their new relationship is revealed by the space between them. Brown's work suggests that the physical passage of travel is a metaphor for a more internal journey—that of an intimate relationship.

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Exhibition List
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Dimensions
  • Image Dimensions: 84 x 72 x 2 1/2 in. (213.36 x 182.88 x 6.35 cm)

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