Early career Brown moved to
Auckland in 1964 and was initially librarian-in-charge at the
Elam School of Fine Arts library. The following year he took up a position at the
Auckland Art Gallery Research Library. During this time Brown also kept up his art practice as a painter and photographer.
Interest in Colin McCahon Brown developed an early interest in the work of
Colin McCahon and was reviewing his work in the
Auckland Star as early as 1965. He went on to write more than 30 reviews and essays devoted to the artist along with two books
Towards the Promised Land: On the Life and Art of Colin McCahon and his seminal work
Colin McCahon: Artist published in 1984. The two men were close friends having first met in 1952 and in 1968 they both exhibited portraits in the exhibition
Face to Face at Kees Hos's New Vision Gallery in Auckland. As McCahon put it, “...he painted me and I painted him.”
Art history, writing, and criticism In 1969,
An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1967 was published, co-written by Brown and
Hamish Keith. This first attempt to write a history of New Zealand art was used as a standard text and revised and enlarged as
Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1980 in 1982. The new edition sparked a heated argument spearheaded by art historian
Francis Pound in his book
Frames on the Land. Pound decried what he saw as Brown and Keith's provincial view of New Zealand art in contrast to what he considered the more relevant contemporary views held by Internationalist artists.
Museum career In 1970, Brown was appointed director at the Waikato Art Gallery (now the
Waikato Museum of Art and History) in Hamilton. He left after a year and moved to
Dunedin working as the Curator of Pictures at the
Hocken Library. There he curated
New Zealand painting 1900–1920 Traditions and Departures, the first of three important touring exhibitions, with accompanying catalogues, that traced New Zealand's art history from 1920 to 1960. In 1974, Brown was appointed the first professional director of the
Sarjeant Gallery in
Whanganui. During his three years in the role Brown introduced a number of important contemporary works into the collection including works by
Don Driver,
Gordon Walters,
Allen Maddox,
Philip Clairmont and McCahon. Brown left the Sarjeant Gallery to become a free-lance writer in 1977 citing council interference with the art gallery's professional standards and procedures as the reason.
Art practice Brown remained a practising artist after leaving art school. In the 1960s, his paintings were selected for a number of group shows at the Auckland Art Gallery and he was invited to exhibit in Christchurch with
The Group in 1962 and 1965. In 2007, an exhibition of Brown's photographs taken during a trip to America in 1974 was exhibited at the
Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland titled
Hotel North America. More recently there has been renewed interest in Brown's photography. == Honours and awards ==