149
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FREDERICK J. BROWN (1945 - 2012)
Art Blakey
.
Oil on cotton canvas, 2007. 610x457 mm; 24x18 inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: the estate of the artist.
Frederick J. Brown paints a wonderfully expressive image of jazz drummer and legend Art Blakey
- an excellent example of his 30 year long portrait series of homages to jazz and blues greats. Born
in Greensboro, GA, Brown grew up on the Southside of Chicago where Brown’s father’s connection
to the music scene introduced him to such blues musicians as Muddy Waters, Howlin’Wolf and
Lightin’ Hopkins.When Brown moved to NewYork, it was jazz giant Ornette Coleman whom he
befriended and introduced him to the downtown New York creative community. Brown quickly
rose to prominence in the NewYork art scene in Soho during the 1970s and 80s. His direct style
of painting with bold colors and drawing connected him to the growing Neo-Expressionism of the
period, and his studio at 120Wooster Street became an artistic hub.
With his narrative paintings and iconic figures, Brown quickly distinguished himself, and they led to
his inclusion in
Recent Acquisitions of 20th Century Art
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979,
and a 1983 solo exhibition at Marlborough Gallery, NewYork. In 1988, Brown became the first artist
to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of the Chinese Revolution at Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
China. A touring retrospective of his work,
Frederick J. Brown: Portraits in Jazz, Blues, and Other Icons
,
originated at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City in 2002. Today Brown’s
paintings are found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National
Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
[5,000/7,000]
