There were a few key movements and events that gave birth to the American Abstract movement and Byron Browne was part of all of them. Hans Hoffman played a significant role when he opens his school of painting in New York which Browne attended in 1935. In 1936 he is one of the artists that formed the American Abstract Artist Group which included Lassaw, Gorky, de Kooning and Greene. Browne was a peer to Arshile Gorky and John Graham and these artists had a great rapport. This was one of the first formalized groups for abstraction in America and they held exhibitions from 1937 to 1962 for abstract painting.

Browne’s work from the 1930’s and 1940’s is exceptional. Browne clearly looked to France and the work of Pablo Picasso and George Braque for inspiration. And as he moved into the 1940’s the influence of Joan Miro is reflected as well.