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Now, on separation from the service, he had the opportunity to pick up his work in his established field or to reassess his interest and redirect his energies. His work as a muralist had drawn on his earlier studio work, his teaching and his lettering. He could again use the same background to do more [[strikethrough]]creative[[/strikethrough]] innovative? work, although his ability at murals gave him great assurance.

At this period in New York City he fortunately was able to resume his contacts with working artists he had know previously, many of whom were by now in the fore of the avant garde group. Jackson Pollock's brother, Charles, had been one of the artists working for Brooks on the LaGuardia mural, "Flight". In the Spring of 1942 when Brooks was going into the Army, Marcel Duchamp had been organizing a group show for Peggy Guggenheim's "Art of [strikethroug]] the [[/strikethrough]] This Century Gallery." Jackson Pollock had been invited to be in the show and Duchamp wanted to see Brooks' work but he had already packed up to enter the service. Pollock had his first one-man show in November of 1943, Motherwell in 1944, Rothko in 1945 and Still in 1946. Other artists who were able to progress with their work during that time were Gorky, Guston, Baziotes, de Kooning, and Kline. These [[strikethrough]] were the [[/strikethrough]] war years of artistic productivity for so many,[[strikethrough]] which [[/strikethrough]] had set back Brooks' painting and also required a period of readjustment for him after his return [[strikethrough]]ing[[/strikethrough]] to New York in [[strikethrough]] 1945 [[/strikethrough]] 1946.

Among those with who he had beeen in contact earlier and with whom he resumed is acquaintanceship were Bradly Walker B.W. Tomlin, with whom he had shared a summer studio at Woodstock in 1931, [[strikethrough]]and[[/strikethrough]] Jackson Pollack and Philip Guston. He also experimented with the "penetration into cubism" of Wallace Harrison in whose critism class he enrolled, while he "learned how to paint again" making "negative intervals just as real as the things that could be thought of as a bottle or a figure", [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] while giving the surface more emphasis.

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