Artwork copyright Joan Brown. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2023.

Nanda Devi #7, 1980

Joan Brown
(American, born 1938, died 1990)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

This painting by Joan Brown is named after Nanda Devi, the second-highest mountain in India and the 23rd-highest peak in the world. Nanda Devi is sometimes referred to as the Mother Goddess. Joan Brown traveled to India in 1980, the same year this was painted, and became a follower of the yogic guru Sai Sathya Baba (1926-2011). She made a series of paintings about this mountain.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Social and Health Services.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Influential artist Joan Brown (1938-1990) painted everyday imagery from her own life and travels. This imagery often merged into into a spiritual quest.

Born in San Francisco, Brown earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. She was a leader in the Bay Area Figurative Movement and a professor of art at University of California, Berkeley. Brown's art is in many museum collections and she has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and many others.