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 Immortalizing the Passion Special to JAM by Traci Findley
His most recent exhibition and tour began on June 16, 2002 in Kansas City. Organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, "Frederick J. Brown: Portraits in Jazz, Blues, and Other Icons" has since traveled to the New Orleans Museum of Art. The tour will be ending at the Studio Museum in Harlem on June 29, 2003. With this conclusion Kansas City will receive an invaluable gift: a six foot rendition of William "Count" Basie. This generous contribution is being made by the Kemper family to the American Jazz Museum located in the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District. The Count Basie painting will arrive at the museum this summer and will join another of Brown's paintings, the rendition of Charlie Parker currently displayed in the foyer. The portrait of Parker was donated by Gerald Pearson. Partnered with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Pearson was one of many sponsors of the American Jazz Museum's former exhibition of "Frederick J. Brown: Portraits of Music I Love." He explains his motivation behind the gift saying, "It is a natural fit to keep Charlie in his home town of Kansas City." Pearson admits Brown's passion for the music inspired him to learn more about jazz and the history behind it. "There is something about him. He has a love for what he is doing. He is not just creating portraits." Brown is on a mission to not only create, but to preserve. For him, there are no boundaries between the music and his art. He is trying to capture it all. Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Brown was exposed to some of the most legendary blues and jazz performers. They influenced his interpretation of the world. In a time when the jazz and blues philosophical rebellion was fresh and new, his father's friends were comprised of many legendary musicians. Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, and Lightnin' Slim Hopkins are among those who helped shape Brown's childhood. He says that he feels a real physical, financial, and spiritual obligation to these men. "Part of my inspiration is the need to really paint these musicians in a positive light and do them justice. So people won't forget them," says Brown.
A visit to New York in 1968 greatly changed the course of Brown's life. It was in Soho where his friend and jazz great Ornette Coleman introduced Frederick to playwright Tennessee Williams, artists Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers and Forrest Meyers, and musicians Pharaoh Sanders, Charles Moffett, Chet Baker, Dewey Redman, Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell and Don Cherry. Surrounding himself with all of these creative artists would soon affect Brown and stir something inside of him. Listening to Brown describe the story in his relaxing soulful voice leads one to believe that the completion of his first painting was almost magical. He admits that it was a time in his life when he was searching for his identity. "Anthony Braxton, my childhood friend, and I were sharing a place in New York at the time, and it was right after Ornette Coleman had told me that I needed to do something bigger with my life than what I was doing. He said to me, 'Frederick, I just ask you to do something to add to the community.'" Brown explains that while Braxton was playing the saxophone one evening, he found the inspiration that would move him into a new direction. "It was the sounds of the notes that led me, and I painted to the same speed. The images just came out. He was playing and I began to paint to the sounds of the rhythm. I just put them to the palate." This painting is a part of the current tour, and it is amazing to know that Brown completed this tribute to Braxton in under an hour and a half. He had finally found his role. The composition of the music would become an essential tool for Brown's artistic process. He explains that every time he paints a performer, he listens to a recording of their music and displays their photograph in his studio. "The music is like their spirit coming through, and then it becomes my duty to provide the body for the painting to inhabit." Brown says that jazz and blues are merely a starting point to his creations. "The art of the music has already been executed at the highest level. The musician has already done half the job for me. It's already there. It's in the air." Music and art have those exceptional qualities to transcend cultures. In the 1980s, Frederick was invited by the Chinese Artist Association to teach at the Central College of Fine Arts and Crafts in Beijing, China. This experience would lead to an historical event. In 1988, Frederick J. Brown became the first Western artist to exhibit his work at the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. His work broke down cultural barriers. When asked about the experience, Brown feels humbled and honored. "To think that for the last 5,000 years, they asked me. Not Picasso or Matisse, but me. It was a very gratifying thing to do." Drawing on his passion for jazz and blues, and studying under one of the world's most highly regarded abstract expressionist artists such as de Kooning, Brown has committed to retaining a sense of independence in his technique. In the June 1985 issue of Vogue magazine, art historian and critic Barbara Rose identified Brown in a category of rule breaking artist who would define the next decade. R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. recognizes Brown's ability and what he is attempting to do. "Frederick has his own unique style. If I had to compare him with someone, I would have to say Thomas Hart Benton." Kemper goes on to add, "Preserving the history of the African-American art form of jazz is a wonderful thing that he is doing. Frederick has given a great contribution to the world." Kemper and his wife Bebe met Brown when serving as commissioners for the National Museum of American Art and have been great supporters ever since. Café Sebastienne located in the center of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, holds a permanent display of 110 Frederick J. Brown paintings titled "The History of Art." The café is named after Brown's only daughter. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art's permanent collection of Brown's work helps solidify Kansas City's credibility to the world that this is a town that understands and appreciates contemporary artists. Native American and African culture, primitive folk art, and European religious subject matters have additionally been a part of Brown's artistic influences. One of his most notable pieces appears in the library of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. The Assumption of Mary is considered to be one of the largest religious paintings in the world, measuring 33 x 28 feet. Since 1970, Frederick J. Brown has had solo exhibitions in galleries and museums in New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Washington, DC; and elsewhere around the country. Permanent collections include the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. Brown says he has completed only about a fourth of those jazz and blues musicians who have touched his life. His ambition has revealed the power of what art and music can do. Not only does his work preserve a part of this nation's history, it opens up awareness. It is a tribute, it is a narrative, it defines what art and music should be about. Gratitude should be given to the Kemper family and Gerald Pearson for bringing Brown's works to Kansas City, and for all those who have given so much to create something more meaningful than that of themselves. A thank you to Frederick J. Brown and those musicians he so passionately wants to immortalize. Traci Findley is a Kansas City native, a Rockhurst University graduate, and a freelance writer who aspires to be a playwright. RETURN
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