Joan Brown
United States, 1938–1990

When I did the painting of the buffalo . . . I went out every morning for about a month to Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco and followed a herd of buffalo around. I drew all these crazy buffalo with all their ritualistic habits until I found a buffalo that I really zeroed in on. Then I was able to paint. . . . It’s the same with getting to know the [human] figure.

Joan Brown, interview with Lynn Gumpert, in Early Work: Lynda Benglis, Joan Brown, Luis Jimenez, Gary Stephan, Lawrence Weiner (New York: The New Museum, 1982), 21.