Gordon H. Brown

Brown was born in Wellington on 12 April 1931, the son of Gwynneth and Cecil Harold Brown.{{cite web |url=https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/search?path=%2FqueryEntry.m%3Ftype%3Dbirths |title=Birth search: registration number 1931/11569 |website=Births, deaths & marriages online |publisher=Department of Internal Affairs |access-date=1 April 2025}}{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19310413.2.2 |title=Births |date=13 April 1931 |work=Evening Post |volume=111 |issue=86 |page=1 |access-date=1 April 2025 |via=PapersPast}} He was educated at Wellington Technical College and in 1956 graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Canterbury College School of Art. In 1960, he trained as a librarian at the National Library School in Wellington and went on to work in the Alexander Turnbull Library.{{Cite journal |last=Tyler |first=Linda |date=2025-01-01 |title=Gordon H. Brown (1931-2025) |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134533559 |journal=Art New Zealand}}

Brown moved to Auckland in 1964 and was initially librarian-in-charge at the Elam School of Fine Arts library. The following year he took up a position at the Auckland Art Gallery Research Library. During this time Brown also kept up his art practice as a painter and photographer.{{Cite journal |date=May 1974 |title=Who You Should Know 10: Gordon H Brown |journal=AGMANZ News |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=42–43}}

Brown developed an early interest in the work of Colin McCahon and was reviewing his work in the Auckland Star as early as 1965.{{Cite news |title=Exhibition shows an emerging McCahon |pages=11 August 1965 |work=Auckland Star}} He went on to write more than 30 reviews and essays devoted to the artist along with two books Towards the Promised Land: On the Life and Art of Colin McCahon{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Gordon H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/463639286 |title=Towards a promised land : on the life and art of Colin McCahon |date=2010 |publisher=Auckland University Press |others=Colin McCahon |isbn=978-1-86940-452-9 |location=Auckland |oclc=463639286}} and his seminal work Colin McCahon: Artist published in 1984.{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Gordon H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18514987 |title=Colin McCahon, artist |date=1984 |publisher=Reed |isbn=0-589-01486-2 |location=Wellington |oclc=18514987}} The two men were close friends having first met in 1952{{Cite web |title=Gordon H Brown and Colin McCahon |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/gordon-h-brown-and-colin-mccahon |access-date=10 December 2022 |website=Auckland Art Gallery|date=16 March 2020 }} and in 1968 they both exhibited portraits in the exhibition Face to Face at Kees Hos's New Vision Gallery in Auckland.{{Cite book |title=Colin McCahon: A Survey Exhibition |publisher=The Auckland City Art Gallery |year=1972 |pages=25}} As McCahon put it, “...he painted me and I painted him.”{{Cite web |title=Colin McCahon |url=https://mccahon.co.nz/cm000286 |access-date=15 December 2022 |website=Colin McCahon Online Catalogue}}

In 1969, An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1967{{Cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Gordon H |title=An Introduction to New Zealand Painting: 1839-1967 |last2=Keith |first2=Hamish |publisher=Collins |year=1969}} was published, co-written by Brown and Hamish Keith. This first attempt to write a history of New Zealand art was used as a standard text and revised and enlarged as Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1980{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Gordon H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10072630 |title=An introduction to New Zealand painting, 1839-1980 |date=1982 |publisher=Collins |others=Hamish Keith |isbn=0-00-216989-4 |edition=2nd |location=Auckland |oclc=10072630}} in 1982. The new edition sparked a heated argument spearheaded by art historian Francis Pound in his book Frames on the Land.{{Cite book |last=Pound |first=Francis |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12344789 |title=Frames on the land : early landscape painting in New Zealand |date=1983 |publisher=Collins |isbn=0-00-216598-8 |location=Auckland |oclc=12344789}} Pound decried what he saw as Brown and Keith's provincial view of New Zealand art in contrast to what he considered the more relevant contemporary views held by Internationalist artists.{{Cite web |last=Farrar |first=Sarah |date=24 October 2017 |title=Rewriting New Zealand Art: Francis Pound (1948–2017) |url=https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2017/10/24/rewriting-new-zealand-art-francis-pound-1948-2017/ |access-date=15 December 2022}}

In 1970, Brown was appointed director at the Waikato Art Gallery (now the Waikato Museum of Art and History) in Hamilton. He left after a year and moved to Dunedin working as the Curator of Pictures at the Hocken Library. There he curated New Zealand painting 1900–1920 Traditions and Departures, the first of three important touring exhibitions, with accompanying catalogues, that traced New Zealand's art history from 1920 to 1960.{{Cite journal |last=Dart |first=William |date=1981 |title=Book Review: New Zealand Painting 1940-1960 Conformity and Dissension by Gordon H. Brown Published by Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, Wellington |journal=Art New Zealand |volume=22}}

In 1974, Brown was appointed the first professional director of the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui.{{Cite web |title=Portrait of Gordon H Brown |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/48093/portrait-of-gordon-h-brown |access-date=17 December 2022 |website=Sarjeant Gallery}} During his three years in the role Brown introduced a number of important contemporary works into the collection including works by Don Driver,{{Cite web |title=Structure in Blue (Cosmos Series) |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/44031/structure-in-blue-cosmos-series |access-date=20 December 2022}} Gordon Walters,{{Cite web |title=Screen 1976 |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/44053/screen-1976 |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Sarjeant Gallery}} Allen Maddox,{{Cite web |title=Lifes Hurdles |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/45559/lifes-hurdles |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Sarjeant Gallery}} Philip Clairmont{{Cite web |title=The Clothes Line in a Canterbury Nor'wester |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/44005/the-clothes-line-in-a-canterbury-norwester |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Sarjeant Gallery}} and McCahon.{{Cite web |title=Gate 16 Right Corner Upper Left |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/objects/43988/gate-16-white-corner-upper-left) |website=Sarjeant Gallery}} Brown left the Sarjeant Gallery to become a free-lance writer in 1977 citing council interference with the art gallery's professional standards and procedures as the reason.{{Cite news |last=Laurence |first=David |date=9 July 1977 |title=Gallery Chief Hits At 'Council Interference' |work=Wanganui Herald}}

Brown remained a practising artist after leaving art school. In the 1960s, his paintings were selected for a number of group shows at the Auckland Art Gallery and he was invited to exhibit in Christchurch with The Group in 1962{{Cite web |title=The Group 1962 |url=https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Publications/Art/TheGroup/pdfs/1962.pdf |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Christchurch Art Gallery}} and 1965.{{Cite web |title=The Group 1965 |url=https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Publications/Art/TheGroup/pdfs/1965.pdf |access-date=20 December 2022}}

In 2007, an exhibition of Brown's photographs taken during a trip to America in 1974 was exhibited at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland titled Hotel North America.{{Cite web |last=Tyler |first=Linda |date=2017 |title=Space and Place: Gordon H Brown's Hotel North America Series |url=https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/creative/about/art-collection-and-galleries/gus-fisher-gallery/publications/documents/gordon-brown-catalogue.pdf |access-date=20 December 2022}} More recently there has been renewed interest in Brown's photography.{{Cite web |last=Ulenberg |first=Claire |date=5 September 2012 |title=Gordon H Brown: The Camera's Eye |url=https://publicaddress.net/capture/gordon-h-brown-the-cameras-eye/ |access-date=20 December 2022}}

In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Brown was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to art history.{{London Gazette |issue=51774 |date=17 June 1989 |page=32 |supp=3}} The following year, he was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |author-link1=Alister Taylor |author-link2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |page=80}} In 2002, he was conferred an honorary LitD degree by Victoria University of Wellington.{{cite web |url= https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/our-story/history/honorary-graduates |title=Honorary graduates and Hunter fellowships |date=11 March 2024 |publisher=Victoria University of Wellington |accessdate=1 April 2025}}

Brown died on 16 March 2025, at the age of 93.{{Cite web |date=18 March 2025 |title=Vale Gordon H Brown (1931–2025) |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/article/vale-gordon-h-brown-19312025 |access-date=28 March 2025 |website=Auckland Art Gallery |first=Julia |last=Waite}}

In 2002, Victoria University of Wellington inaugurated the Gordon H. Brown lecture series, to further art historical scholarship in New Zealand.{{Cite web |title=Gordon H. Brown Lecture Series |url=https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/seftms/research/publications-and-productions/gordon-h-brown-lecture-series |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Victoria University of Wellington}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:New Zealand art curators

Category:New Zealand art historians

Category:New Zealand librarians

Category:New Zealand painters

Category:Artists from Wellington City

Category:New Zealand photographers

Category:New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People educated at Wellington High School, New Zealand

Category:Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni