Moe Brooker (American, b. 1940)
And Then You Laugh, 2003
Offset lithograph, ed. 27/38
21 5/8 x 21 5/8 in.
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, St. Petersburg College, gift of James G. Sweeny in memory of Martha M. Sweeny, 2020.4.10
Published by the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia, PA. Printed by Robert “Bob” Franklin.
Born in 1940, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Moe Brooker is an abstract painter and educator whose love for jazz music, poetry, graffiti art, spirituality and the work of African American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) and Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) influence his work. Starting out as a realist painter, Brooker could not find the figurative symbolism to express himself so he moved into abstraction to paint the joyous and spiritual aspects of African American life. He sees his process of making art as a journey and jazz is often the metaphor for investigating, plotting pictorial space, and discovery. Like improvisational jazz, Brooker’s intuitive mark-making and vibrant color creates a sense of rhythm. Brooker studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Tyler School of Art, where he earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Fine Arts degrees. He has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Parsons School of Art and Design, the PAFA, and the Moore College of Art and Design. Brooker has won many lifetime achievement awards and his work is collected by major museums including Studio Museum in Harlem; Musée des beaux-arts de l’Ontario; and many others.
Brooker is influenced by African textiles and African American quilting traditions from Gee’s Bend. These quilting traditions are reflected in his use of the checkerboard pattern and patches of color, which he says, “reflect the same type of intuitive African choice system of color and shape.”
And Then You Laugh is part of a series of offset lithographs Brooker produced at the Brandywine Workshop, in Philadelphia, that includes And Then…; And Then You Laugh; And Then…You Just Smile; and And Then You Wonder.
Artura.org – Moe Brooker print series