Art Gallery
by Michele Malinchak
Charles Browning’s paintings are bold, complex and sweeping. At first glance, they could have been painted a century or more ago, but they are much more than historical renderings. Upon closer inspection, you are taken aback by what you see. By putting his own twist on history, the Bucks County artist debunks myths from the past and shakes our senses in the process.
“I have a sincere flat-footed love of an anachronistic form of painting,” he said, which is a traditional style rooted in realism. He describes his work as “an interplay of art and history, humor and brutality, sincerity and irony, narrative and allegory.”
Charles was always drawn to Americana and historical art. “I’m a history grazer, not a history buff,” he said. Interested in race, power and gender in American history, he noticed most of the artists who dealt with these subjects were women and minorities. As a white male, he wondered how the subjects would change if he approached them from his perspective. History paintings were once considered the noblest form of art, conveying high moral or intellectual ideas. “I wanted to paint in a manner that was the center of art history.”
Charles is also intrigued by history for geographical reasons. “We live in the cradle of American colonial and civil war history,” he said. In addition, he inherited a part of that history. Charles is descended from Revolutionary War general Rufus Putnam who was also the country’s first surveyor general. Putnam also led the first Ohio settlement and is known as the “Father of Ohio.”
Many of Charles’s subjects deal with Manifest Destiny, the mid-1800s belief that the United States was destined to expand to the Pacific Ocean and conquer the entire continent. One of his paintings depicts two frontiersmen paddling in two different directions in the same canoe. Another work portrays a buffoonish character dressed in buckskin about to walk off a cliff. Other works feature Buffalo Bill or encounters with wildlife and Native Americans. The subjects, while from another era, are timeless. As writer William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Artists he admires include Albert Bierstadt, a 19th century American artist known for his lavish landscapes of the American West. Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River School, a group of painters Charles also appreciates. Other favorites include George Caleb Bingham, another great artist of the American West, and the prints of Currier and Ives.
To finish reading about Charles Browning turn to page 73 in the Spring 2012 issue of Bucks County Magazine.