Byron Browne (1907-1961)

With its style dramatically shifting across its vertical axis, Salute Each Time the Cock Crows of 1940 reflects the key influences of Byron Browne's career. As demonstrated by the abstracted right side of the composition, in the 1930s Browne was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists and closely associated with artists including Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. By contrast, the left, more classical part of the painting pays clear homage to the art of Pablo Picasso. Douglas Webster reflects, "His paintings are similar in tone and iconography to that of Picasso's of the same period because Browne assimilated the style and explored the same sources as Picasso, particularly Ingres and the Archaic Greek sculpture. Later he would draw inspiration from a wide variety of 'primitive' sources such as the Easter Island heads..." Combining these two drastically different styles into one work, Salute Each Time the Cock Crows demonstrates how "Byron Browne was a rebel from the onset, a revolutionary and harbinger of the future of art in this country." (Byron Browne: Selected Works, 1932-1952, exhibition catalogue, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1982, p. 3)