stanley brouwn was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, in Dutch Guiana, in 1935, and died in Amsterdam in 2017.
stanley brouwn settled in the Netherlands in 1957. stanley brouwn is a historic figure in conceptual art whose rigorous and understated work offers a radical and immediate experience of the body's relationship to space.
this way brouwn one of his early works that has become iconic, is a series of drawings made by passersby whom the artist asked for directions.
brouwn devoted himself to intense explorations of measurement, an essential element of his work. The movement from point a to point b and the distance between them were central to his art, which captures the tension between abstract measurements (the metric scale) and embodied measurements, such as the foot or the step.
brouwn, who strictly prohibits any photographic reproduction of his work, is a paragon of rigor, logic, and consistency.
brouwn does not publish any photographs of his work or any biographical or bibliographical details. he does not consent to giving interviews. such information detracts from the work itself – “is deadwood”, argues brouwn, “the work itself provides the interviews, writes the biography”. brouwn has maintained this attitude since the beginning and for him it constitutes a part of his work – “is material”, says brouwn.
"in my work there is never any question of a drawing or a sculpture"
"each millimetre, metre and distance has its individual identity"
"the display is material in itself"
"never before have distances been so meaningless as nowadays, increasingly more people fly long distance once or twice a year. the validity of the concept of distance is becoming still further eroded. in my work distances are recharged again. they again have meaning."
"a distance is direction-oriented, an imaginary distance can be direction-less"
"the publications are long-lasting exhibitions"
Artworks
2 volumes, each 76 pages
each 5.91 x 5.91 in
