Arty Farty Friday ~ James E. Brewton

At the entrance to the rabbit-hole plumbed in yesterday's post was an American painter:
James E. Brewton. If a passing reader has not heard the name before, part of the reason could be that Brewton committed suicide in his mid-thirties. Photographs of this artist are hard to find - that on the right is the best I found, taken as he arrived home from service in Korea in the 1950s.

Brewton was born, in Toledo, Ohio, on this day:
4 November, in 1930. He died on 11 May 1967, when he shot himself. Wikipedia states that he had long suffered severe back pain, and faced partial paralysis, even if any possible spine surgery were to be successful.

There's a brief biography of James Brewton written by his daughter, Emily at Art & Honor.com HERE; also at PASC, HERE

Snips:

While he is known for portraits, prints and his abstract, graffiti-inspired paintings, Jim's training was traditional. He studied at the Ruskin School at Oxford in 1954-55 and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) from 1955 through 1958.

Jim was my father, an avant-garde painter and printmaker who died by his own hand in 1967. Our household in Philadelphia had very few of his pictures (my parents had broken up), and I grew up knowing little about his art. After two memorial shows in Philadelphia—in 1968 and 1971—his artwork was dispersed and the world forgot Jim. Thirty-seven years passed.On a February afternoon in 2008, I noticed an ad in an old copy of ARTNews. It was for Michael Taylor’s show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Thomas Chimes: A Life in Pataphysics.” “Pataphysics” got my attention; I vaguely remembered Jim’s print, The Pataphysics Times (1964). I’d thought Jim was the only Philadelphia artist who admired Alfred Jarry, back in the day.

Some of Brewton's artwork can be seen HERE;
and via Google Image HERE.

The Pataphysics Times, created by Brewton in 1964, relates back to yesterday's post:

ASTROLOGY

James E. Brewton born in Toledo, Ohio on 4 November 1930 - 12 noon chart below, time of birth not known.

Alfred Jarry's natal chart (from yesterday's post)

The only quick point I'm going to make on the astrology of James E. Brewton is to point out a similarity to the natal chart of one of his main inspirational characters, Alfred Jarry (see yesterday's post):
Brewton had a Fire Grand Trine linking Venus, Mars and Uranus (with Uranus, perhaps, close to natal Moon - depending on time of birth). Jarry also had a Fire Grand Trine linking Venus/Uranus, Mars and Moon.

Jarry had an opposition from his Venus/Uranus conjunction to Saturn.

In Brewton's case, two square aspects, one from Uranus to Saturn, the other from Moon to Pluto and Jupiter or (according to my software) a loose T-square with Uranus & maybe Moon (depending on time of birth) at its apex and a Saturn-Jupiter/Pluto opposition at its base overlaid (or underlaid) the Grand Trine.


Two men, born on different continents, 57 years apart, one man found inspiration in the work and ideas of the other. Both men died in their thirties, one from TB the other by suicide triggered by pain from spinal disease. Is it not interesting that echoes from the natal chart of one are found in the natal chart of the other?