Modernist Abstract Woodblock Print by James Brown Renowned Artist. Presented matted and framed. Signed lower right numbered 2 of 12. James Brown (born 1951) He is an American-born painter now active in Paris and Oaxaca (Mexico). He was most well known in the 1980s for his rough painterly semi-figurative paintings, bearing affinities to Jean-Michel Basquiat and East Village painting of the time, but with influences from primitive art and classical Western modernism.