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EP 036: Pataphysical Graffiti and Constructive Mourning: Uncovering Jim Brewton’s Long-Hidden Artwork
Our guest at the table tonight is Emily Brewton Schilling, artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (https://www.artandhonor.com/emily-bre...).
Emily is an artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (1930-1967). Brewton shot himself on May 11, 1967, three days before the opening of a show he organized with Jim McWilliams, The Society for the Commemoration of Festivals and Fetishes at Socrates Perakis Gallery in Philadelphia. “Artist’s Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit,” was the headline of Dorothy Grafly’s review in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. By the time he died, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
Two posthumous exhibitions were held, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fina Arts (PAFA) in 1968 and Kenmore Galleries in 1971, after which most of Brewton’s work was scattered and sunk out of sight. Although devastated by the loss of her father, Emily was raised in ignorance of his life and work. In 2008, while living in Florida, Emily came across Thomas Chimes: Adventures in ’Pataphysics (Yale University Press, 2007) by Michael R. Taylor. Amazed that other Philadelphia artists were interested in ’Pataphysics in the 1960s, she contacted Taylor, then curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Taylor encouraged Emily to begin looking for her father’s artwork.
Beginning with knowledge of only 16 works’ whereabouts, Emily dedicated herself to the quest and has since found hundreds of artworks. In 2014, Emily and Patricia Weingrad—who co-curated the Brewton memorial in 1971—curated Brewton’s first solo exhibition in 43 years, Graffiti Pataphysic, For All Mankind, at Slought, Philadelphia. The show was part of “Philadelphia à la Pataphysique,” a celebration organized at the University of Pennsylvania. The 2014 celebration led to the creation of the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC), as well as a forthcoming book, Pataphysics Unrolled, edited by Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor (Penn State Press, Spring 2022), which includes a chapter by Taylor about Brewton.
Emily grew up in the Philadelphia area, and began her career working at WMMR radio station in the early 1980s and writing weekly art reviews for The South Street Star. She served as public relations and program director at The Philadelphia Art Alliance in the late 1980s, and later worked as a corporate employee communications writer for many years. Now living in New York, Emily has edited several books, fiction and nonfiction, and compiled a catalogue raisonne of Jim Brewton’s artworks. She is a founding director of the James E. Brewton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, and is finishing a memoir about the hunt for her father’s work. Emily is delighted to join Tina Brock at the virtual table on “Into the Absurd: An Existential Dinner Conversation.”
~~~~~~~
We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information. To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyco....
To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page:
Emily is an artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (1930-1967). Brewton shot himself on May 11, 1967, three days before the opening of a show he organized with Jim McWilliams, The Society for the Commemoration of Festivals and Fetishes at Socrates Perakis Gallery in Philadelphia. “Artist’s Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit,” was the headline of Dorothy Grafly’s review in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. By the time he died, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
Two posthumous exhibitions were held, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fina Arts (PAFA) in 1968 and Kenmore Galleries in 1971, after which most of Brewton’s work was scattered and sunk out of sight. Although devastated by the loss of her father, Emily was raised in ignorance of his life and work. In 2008, while living in Florida, Emily came across Thomas Chimes: Adventures in ’Pataphysics (Yale University Press, 2007) by Michael R. Taylor. Amazed that other Philadelphia artists were interested in ’Pataphysics in the 1960s, she contacted Taylor, then curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Taylor encouraged Emily to begin looking for her father’s artwork.
Beginning with knowledge of only 16 works’ whereabouts, Emily dedicated herself to the quest and has since found hundreds of artworks. In 2014, Emily and Patricia Weingrad—who co-curated the Brewton memorial in 1971—curated Brewton’s first solo exhibition in 43 years, Graffiti Pataphysic, For All Mankind, at Slought, Philadelphia. The show was part of “Philadelphia à la Pataphysique,” a celebration organized at the University of Pennsylvania. The 2014 celebration led to the creation of the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC), as well as a forthcoming book, Pataphysics Unrolled, edited by Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor (Penn State Press, Spring 2022), which includes a chapter by Taylor about Brewton.
Emily grew up in the Philadelphia area, and began her career working at WMMR radio station in the early 1980s and writing weekly art reviews for The South Street Star. She served as public relations and program director at The Philadelphia Art Alliance in the late 1980s, and later worked as a corporate employee communications writer for many years. Now living in New York, Emily has edited several books, fiction and nonfiction, and compiled a catalogue raisonne of Jim Brewton’s artworks. She is a founding director of the James E. Brewton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, and is finishing a memoir about the hunt for her father’s work. Emily is delighted to join Tina Brock at the virtual table on “Into the Absurd: An Existential Dinner Conversation.”
~~~~~~~
We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information. To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyco....
To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page:
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Our guest at the table tonight is Emily Brewton Schilling, artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (https://www.artandhonor.com/emily-bre...).
Emily is an artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (1930-1967). Brewton shot himself on May 11, 1967, three days before the opening of a show he organized with Jim McWilliams, The Society for the Commemoration of Festivals and Fetishes at Socrates Perakis Gallery in Philadelphia. “Artist’s Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit,” was the headline of Dorothy Grafly’s review in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. By the time he died, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
Two posthumous exhibitions were held, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fina Arts (PAFA) in 1968 and Kenmore Galleries in 1971, after which most of Brewton’s work was scattered and sunk out of sight. Although devastated by the loss of her father, Emily was raised in ignorance of his life and work. In 2008, while living in Florida, Emily came across Thomas Chimes: Adventures in ’Pataphysics (Yale University Press, 2007) by Michael R. Taylor. Amazed that other Philadelphia artists were interested in ’Pataphysics in the 1960s, she contacted Taylor, then curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Taylor encouraged Emily to begin looking for her father’s artwork.
Beginning with knowledge of only 16 works’ whereabouts, Emily dedicated herself to the quest and has since found hundreds of artworks. In 2014, Emily and Patricia Weingrad—who co-curated the Brewton memorial in 1971—curated Brewton’s first solo exhibition in 43 years, Graffiti Pataphysic, For All Mankind, at Slought, Philadelphia. The show was part of “Philadelphia à la Pataphysique,” a celebration organized at the University of Pennsylvania. The 2014 celebration led to the creation of the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC), as well as a forthcoming book, Pataphysics Unrolled, edited by Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor (Penn State Press, Spring 2022), which includes a chapter by Taylor about Brewton.
Emily grew up in the Philadelphia area, and began her career working at WMMR radio station in the early 1980s and writing weekly art reviews for The South Street Star. She served as public relations and program director at The Philadelphia Art Alliance in the late 1980s, and later worked as a corporate employee communications writer for many years. Now living in New York, Emily has edited several books, fiction and nonfiction, and compiled a catalogue raisonne of Jim Brewton’s artworks. She is a founding director of the James E. Brewton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, and is finishing a memoir about the hunt for her father’s work. Emily is delighted to join Tina Brock at the virtual table on “Into the Absurd: An Existential Dinner Conversation.”
~~~~~~~
We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information. To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyco....
To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page:
Emily is an artist, writer, and daughter of Philadelphia avant-garde artist and Pataphysician James E. Brewton (1930-1967). Brewton shot himself on May 11, 1967, three days before the opening of a show he organized with Jim McWilliams, The Society for the Commemoration of Festivals and Fetishes at Socrates Perakis Gallery in Philadelphia. “Artist’s Suicide Gives Tragic Overtone to Exhibit,” was the headline of Dorothy Grafly’s review in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. By the time he died, Brewton had “had several one-man shows, and museum curators were beginning to exhibit interest,” as Nessa Forman wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There was an artist,” Forman continued, “who was ahead of his time, who was brilliant, sensitive and nonviolent, who loved his art and just wanted to paint.”
Two posthumous exhibitions were held, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fina Arts (PAFA) in 1968 and Kenmore Galleries in 1971, after which most of Brewton’s work was scattered and sunk out of sight. Although devastated by the loss of her father, Emily was raised in ignorance of his life and work. In 2008, while living in Florida, Emily came across Thomas Chimes: Adventures in ’Pataphysics (Yale University Press, 2007) by Michael R. Taylor. Amazed that other Philadelphia artists were interested in ’Pataphysics in the 1960s, she contacted Taylor, then curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Taylor encouraged Emily to begin looking for her father’s artwork.
Beginning with knowledge of only 16 works’ whereabouts, Emily dedicated herself to the quest and has since found hundreds of artworks. In 2014, Emily and Patricia Weingrad—who co-curated the Brewton memorial in 1971—curated Brewton’s first solo exhibition in 43 years, Graffiti Pataphysic, For All Mankind, at Slought, Philadelphia. The show was part of “Philadelphia à la Pataphysique,” a celebration organized at the University of Pennsylvania. The 2014 celebration led to the creation of the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC), as well as a forthcoming book, Pataphysics Unrolled, edited by Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor (Penn State Press, Spring 2022), which includes a chapter by Taylor about Brewton.
Emily grew up in the Philadelphia area, and began her career working at WMMR radio station in the early 1980s and writing weekly art reviews for The South Street Star. She served as public relations and program director at The Philadelphia Art Alliance in the late 1980s, and later worked as a corporate employee communications writer for many years. Now living in New York, Emily has edited several books, fiction and nonfiction, and compiled a catalogue raisonne of Jim Brewton’s artworks. She is a founding director of the James E. Brewton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, and is finishing a memoir about the hunt for her father’s work. Emily is delighted to join Tina Brock at the virtual table on “Into the Absurd: An Existential Dinner Conversation.”
~~~~~~~
We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information. To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyco....
To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page: