Background
Stanley Brouwn was born on June 25, 1935 in the capital of the Republic of Suriname, Paramaribo. He relocated to Amsterdam in 1957.
(The edition consists of two volumes. The content of the b...)
The edition consists of two volumes. The content of the book is very simple: in the center of every page, one finds a material, followed by a unit of length expressed in ells or in steps, increasing gradually until 10. The materials are iron pipe, plastic tube, wooden lath, aluminum strip, elastic band, cooper wire and nylon rope.
https://www.amazon.com/ell-ells-steps-Stanley-Brouwn/dp/2930439033/?tag=2022091-20
1998
Stanley Brouwn was born on June 25, 1935 in the capital of the Republic of Suriname, Paramaribo. He relocated to Amsterdam in 1957.
Stanley Brouwn’s career began with the introduction to the art group Zero at the end of 1950s. As to his early artworks, polythene bags filled with rubbish and hung from the ceiling plus the wood and iron sculptures, they were destroyed by himself.
At the outset of the 1960s, the artist created his artworks using the sheet of paper laid on the street in order to catch pedestrians’ footsteps. He also asked passersby to draw the path to different places. Besides, Brouwn walked around cities and counted his own steps. Each drawing, including blank pages, was stamped by an inscription “This way Brouwn.” Later, the works were published in a book having the same title.
In fact, the artist gathered many of his artworks in a book which he considered himself as exhibitions in themselves.
So, in 1964, appeared three copies of a book called Brouwnhairs. On each page one of artist’s hair was shown. Other book, 1m 1step, published in 1976, contains two lines one of which is the length of his step and the other one meter long. The book Door of 1989 represents the measured and depicted door of one of the Amsterdam buildings.
During his career, Stanley Brouwn took part in many museum exhibitions, such as at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, at the Van Abbemuseum, both in 2005, and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006. His artworks were also the subjects of Venice Biennale of 1982 and of several Documentas (1972, 1977, 1982, 2002), exhibitions of contemporary art organized in Kassel, Germany.
Stanley Brouwn also had worked as a teacher at the Kunstakademie Hamburg for several years.
(The edition consists of two volumes. The content of the b...)
1998Stanley Brouwns’ works which can be considered as abstract, explore human activity in terms of the time, measured distances and direction. The artist even created his own units of measure, such as the Brouwn cubit, the Brouwn foot, or the Brouwn step.
Brouwn was so called absent artist often using the observers themselves as pieces of art or their hands to create his works, like it was in This way Brouwn series. He prioritized over the creative process itself not over the artist’s person. The artist believed that in the future, people would be dispersed into time, space and colour living in a world that had no memory.
Quotations:
"Walk during a few moments very consciously in a certain direction; simultaneously an infinite number of living creatures in the universe are moving in an infinite number of directions." 1969, in Bulletin 11 by Amsterdam gallery Art & Project
"Brouwn makes people discover the streets they use every day. A farewell from the city, the earth, before we make the great leap into space, before we discover outer space." 1967
Stanley Brouwn’s lifestyle was ascetic. Throughout his career, despite few exceptions, the artist didn’t like to be photographed or interviewed, he didn’t participate at the openings of the exhibitions and didn’t allow to reproduce his artworks. That’s why there are very little number of catalogues containing his creations or photos.