Dropout’s art earns callback from Colby

WATERVILLE – Forty-two years ago, Bruce Brown flunked out of Colby College.

In February, Colby invited him back, but not as a student. This time around, his art acumen made the grade. Recently, Brown held court at Colby’s museum, describing his extensive collection of works on paper, which is on view there through March 23. It reads like a history of contemporary printmaking, global in scope yet personal in taste. And every piece in the exhibit – 178 prints and photographs – was acquired on a schoolteacher’s budget.

“Anybody can be a collector,” said Brown, who has since retired from teaching and now works as the curator for the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport.

Brown started buying art in the 1970s, while he worked at Freeport High School. The first thing to catch his eye was a Maine landscape, but he soon found that a teacher’s salary wasn’t conducive to collecting paintings, so he switched to prints. He first focused on Maine artists, but his interest grew, and he eventually added work by such modern masters as Sol LeWitt, Chuck Close, Robert Indiana, Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Rauschenberg.

“I like work that really stands out,” Brown said. “It’s work that has guts. I’ve always stayed away from work that is pretty, which is what most people like, but I like to think I collect work that is beautiful, regardless of how difficult it may be.”

The images are challenging – a black-and-white galaxy, a series of squiggles, a page depicting all the people killed by gun violence in one day. But these were exactly what he wanted.

“It’s a very personal take,” Brown said. “I’ve never had to satisfy anyone but myself. I’ve collected what I like.”

Over time, what he liked evolved, from black and white to color and, more recently, photographs. His position at CMCA put him in contact with some of the state’s most innovative photographers, and his collection reflects that. Among the highlights is a sweet George Daniell portrait of the painter John Marin standing on the porch of his Cape Split home.

Given Brown’s background as a teacher, it’s no surprise that his prints are interesting from both a visual and academic standpoint. They cover the spectrum of technique and technology, from etchings to Xerox. They blur the line between precious and common, as prints, by their very nature, can do. They are meant, in part, as a subject of study for Colby’s art students.

“Being a schoolteacher, nothing could please me more,” Brown said.

How things have changed from his Colby days. Back then, his grades were nothing to look at. But today, his collection gets an A.

Museum hours are from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 2-4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. For information, call 872-3228.

Art Notes

. You, too, can own an original print. Owen Smith of Bangor, a fluxus artist and professor at the University of Maine, is selling “Digital Monochromes” – solid blocks of color printed on a computer printer – in the latest SlopArt catalog. SlopArt, a parody on department store circulars, sells art with tongue firmly in cheek. For only $82.49, it can be yours! Check it out at www.slopart.com.

For consideration in Art Seen, send items related to the visual arts to: Kristen Andresen, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329.