WEBVTT - 2026 Update: Frederick J. Brown 0:00:15.210 --> 0:00:15.730 Pushkin. 0:00:20.650 --> 0:00:20.849 Hi. 0:00:21.770 --> 0:00:27.610 Hello, Today we're going to revisit an episode that I reported. 0:00:28.210 --> 0:00:29.610 It's called Frederick J. 0:00:29.770 --> 0:00:30.130 Brown. 0:00:30.530 --> 0:00:32.570 Oh yeah, okay. 0:00:32.810 --> 0:00:34.729 It's about art. It's about a painting. 0:00:34.890 --> 0:00:37.010 Amazing. I love art, you know that, right? 0:00:37.170 --> 0:00:39.250 Yeah, you're always talking about how much you love art? 0:00:39.290 --> 0:00:39.930 Is that true? 0:00:40.330 --> 0:00:40.409 No? 0:00:40.730 --> 0:00:42.570 Oh, I don't you want to become one of those 0:00:42.690 --> 0:00:45.530 art bores. Where are we talking about like fine art? 0:00:45.569 --> 0:00:47.369 Because I thought we were talking about fine art. 0:00:47.530 --> 0:00:48.729 There's all kinds of different art. 0:00:49.050 --> 0:00:51.770 Well, sure, this is art in a way. This conversation 0:00:51.810 --> 0:00:52.850 we're having right now. 0:00:52.769 --> 0:00:55.050 Well, let's not get crazy. 0:00:56.250 --> 0:00:58.569 I feel like our real dilettante around art. But I 0:00:58.610 --> 0:00:59.330 do like it. 0:00:59.569 --> 0:01:00.050 You like it? 0:01:00.050 --> 0:01:01.330 You wouldn't say you love it. 0:01:02.209 --> 0:01:03.970 I just don't know that I'm knowledgeable enough. 0:01:04.130 --> 0:01:04.770 You don't have to be. 0:01:05.250 --> 0:01:06.970 Okay, then I guess I love it. 0:01:07.209 --> 0:01:08.290 Who do you think loves it more? 0:01:08.370 --> 0:01:08.410 Me? 0:01:08.530 --> 0:01:09.090 Or you? 0:01:09.330 --> 0:01:09.649 Probably? 0:01:09.690 --> 0:01:09.810 You? 0:01:10.290 --> 0:01:10.650 Really? 0:01:11.050 --> 0:01:11.330 Maybe? 0:01:11.410 --> 0:01:13.770 Just because of this is going to sound werud, but 0:01:13.810 --> 0:01:15.650 you're added years of experience. 0:01:16.130 --> 0:01:20.530 Sure, I've had a lot of time of aggling art. 0:01:21.970 --> 0:01:24.850 You know, you might be a surprised to learn that 0:01:26.130 --> 0:01:28.810 a person like myself, I'm not much of an art 0:01:28.850 --> 0:01:33.730 snob in the sense that I believe that everybody possesses 0:01:33.930 --> 0:01:35.490 artistic and creative ability. 0:01:35.730 --> 0:01:36.850 Well that's beautiful. 0:01:37.770 --> 0:01:40.490 Now I'm off my high horse. I'm going to get 0:01:40.530 --> 0:01:46.450 on my low horse, my show pony, and away we go. 0:01:47.210 --> 0:01:47.890 Away we go. 0:01:48.170 --> 0:01:51.570 Do you know whose catchphrase that was? No a pilot, 0:01:52.170 --> 0:01:52.930 Jackie Gleeson? 0:01:53.330 --> 0:01:55.250 Oh? All right, well, away we go? 0:01:55.370 --> 0:01:55.770 Indeed? 0:01:56.450 --> 0:02:00.690 Oh but first a word from our sponsors. 0:02:11.370 --> 0:02:14.370 Every Friday night during the pandemic, I'd get on a 0:02:14.410 --> 0:02:17.290 Google hangout with a group of my boyfriend's friends and 0:02:17.330 --> 0:02:18.650 we'd all play Mario Kart. 0:02:20.130 --> 0:02:22.050 Can remind you had a sixteen spread? 0:02:22.050 --> 0:02:22.290 Again? 0:02:22.330 --> 0:02:24.329 There was no pam six races. 0:02:24.810 --> 0:02:27.650 These Mario Kart sessions started back in the days when 0:02:27.650 --> 0:02:30.490 we could barely leave the house due to COVID restrictions, 0:02:30.970 --> 0:02:33.570 so it felt like an escape to log on to 0:02:33.650 --> 0:02:37.450 carelessly karine in a small car or kart if you will, 0:02:37.770 --> 0:02:41.090 through a gold mine or off a waterfall. In those 0:02:41.210 --> 0:02:44.330 dark days, a few minutes on Mount Warrio was the 0:02:44.370 --> 0:02:45.730 closest thing I could get. 0:02:45.610 --> 0:02:46.330 To a vacation. 0:02:47.410 --> 0:02:49.370 Right, let's be bad. 0:02:51.090 --> 0:02:54.370 That being said, I also found these Mario Kart hangouts 0:02:54.410 --> 0:02:57.090 deeply intimidating, because I'm not. 0:02:57.050 --> 0:02:58.489 Good at Mario Kart. 0:02:58.690 --> 0:03:02.410 My gameplay mostly sounds like this, no, no, or this. 0:03:04.610 --> 0:03:12.130 Along with the Mario karting, there was also non Mario chatting. 0:03:11.850 --> 0:03:12.330 On Instagram. 0:03:12.610 --> 0:03:16.050 Believe birthday and chatting of any kind is another thing 0:03:16.090 --> 0:03:19.010 I'm not good at. Every so often, I'd weigh in 0:03:19.050 --> 0:03:24.010 with something like pretty crazy. This was essentially the extent 0:03:24.090 --> 0:03:28.650 of my engagement until the night Maya told us about 0:03:28.650 --> 0:03:33.330 the painting. Maya found the painting sitting in a pile 0:03:33.370 --> 0:03:36.490 of trash on the sidewalk, and it grabbed her instantly. 0:03:37.250 --> 0:03:39.890 It was only later, when she took it home that 0:03:39.970 --> 0:03:42.810 she saw the artist's signature, Frederick J. 0:03:43.010 --> 0:03:44.410 Brown. 0:03:44.650 --> 0:03:47.810 Although Maya works in art, the name was unfamiliar to her, 0:03:48.090 --> 0:03:50.690 so she googled him, and what popped up was a 0:03:50.770 --> 0:03:54.770 lengthy New York Times obituary from twenty twelve, praising Brown's 0:03:54.810 --> 0:03:58.810 work and citing Willem du Kooning as an early mentor. Brown, 0:03:58.850 --> 0:04:02.130 it turned out, was an acclaimed black artist known for 0:04:02.170 --> 0:04:05.650 his portraits of jazz and blues musicians. He had work 0:04:05.690 --> 0:04:09.010 in the Smithsonian. As Maya made her way through his biogic, 0:04:09.850 --> 0:04:13.130 she slowly realized that the painting she'd been so instinctively 0:04:13.210 --> 0:04:16.570 drawn to was actually the work of an important artist, 0:04:17.529 --> 0:04:21.890 and so Maya was left wondering, how did Brown's painting 0:04:22.130 --> 0:04:30.370 end up in the trash? 0:04:30.210 --> 0:04:31.529 Oh very regal building. 0:04:32.250 --> 0:04:35.169 On a cold Friday afternoon, I pay Maya visit her 0:04:35.169 --> 0:04:38.969 Brooklyn apartment building to follow up and learn more. And 0:04:39.010 --> 0:04:50.409 who knows, maybe my boyfriend's friend can simply become a friend. Oh, 0:04:51.130 --> 0:04:52.570 very like regal building. 0:04:52.650 --> 0:04:53.250 I feel like. 0:04:55.049 --> 0:04:58.370 My irl chatting is truly no better than my Mario 0:04:58.450 --> 0:05:03.010 Kart chatting, same as it is. Yeah, what I couldn't 0:05:03.049 --> 0:05:05.650 see on the small square of our Mario Kart calls 0:05:06.089 --> 0:05:09.570 was that every surface of Maya's apartment is covered art. 0:05:10.289 --> 0:05:12.169 Not only has Maya worked in the art world for 0:05:12.210 --> 0:05:16.529 many years at galleries art publishers, her husband, Wes, is 0:05:16.570 --> 0:05:19.969 also an artist himself. He even proposed to Maya on 0:05:20.010 --> 0:05:23.010 the steps of the met There's really only one spot 0:05:23.049 --> 0:05:26.330 in their apartment that's empty, a blank wall above the couch. 0:05:26.929 --> 0:05:29.969 They'd been waiting year after year for the perfect work 0:05:29.969 --> 0:05:33.250 of art to hang there, and now with the discovery 0:05:33.289 --> 0:05:36.330 of the Frederick J. Brown painting, they knew they'd found it. 0:05:37.690 --> 0:05:40.210 Maya says she spotted the painting while heading home from 0:05:40.210 --> 0:05:43.489 a COVID test. It was gigantic, and she still had 0:05:43.489 --> 0:05:46.010 a mile to walk. She knew it didn't really make 0:05:46.130 --> 0:05:48.730 sense to take it with her, but she couldn't walk 0:05:48.770 --> 0:05:49.649 away from it either. 0:05:50.210 --> 0:05:54.010 I just kept going back to it. It just was 0:05:55.130 --> 0:05:57.890 different from all of the other paintings I've seen. It 0:05:58.049 --> 0:06:03.609 just really kind of grabbed me, and I started trying 0:06:03.650 --> 0:06:04.410 to get it out of the. 0:06:04.409 --> 0:06:08.849 Trash, clutching the huge painting to her body. Maya awkwardly 0:06:08.849 --> 0:06:10.249 walk the mile home. 0:06:10.690 --> 0:06:14.689 There's like a little garbage juice at the bottom and 0:06:14.969 --> 0:06:17.769 a little dust at the top, and I was walking. 0:06:17.810 --> 0:06:21.249 I wouldn't let it sit on the ground. I know 0:06:21.330 --> 0:06:23.130 I had probably been on the street all day, but 0:06:23.169 --> 0:06:25.450 I didn't want it to be on the street anymore. 0:06:31.250 --> 0:06:34.249 It is nearly as long as I am tall, and 0:06:34.289 --> 0:06:37.770 I'm by four, lots of color and patterns. 0:06:38.169 --> 0:06:41.529 Despite my fondness for the audio medium, it fails to 0:06:41.570 --> 0:06:44.929 translate the force of Brown's painting. It's not as easily 0:06:45.049 --> 0:06:49.650 encapsulated as say the Mona Lisa Smiling Woman or American 0:06:49.690 --> 0:06:55.650 Gothic unsmiling woman and man. It's mostly abstract, but then 0:06:55.969 --> 0:06:59.330 there are these tiny spots with recognizable figures you. 0:06:59.250 --> 0:07:04.770 Can see faces, and there's these horizontal bands that sort 0:07:04.810 --> 0:07:07.050 of organize the composition. 0:07:07.330 --> 0:07:09.890 Admiring the painting with Maya, it makes me feel like 0:07:09.929 --> 0:07:12.890 I'm at a fancy party in drawing or jerves, but 0:07:12.970 --> 0:07:15.689 also panicked that I have nothing intelligent to say. 0:07:16.090 --> 0:07:17.250 That kind of looks like a seven. 0:07:20.130 --> 0:07:23.410 The painting feels like a stained glass cabinet full of curios. 0:07:23.850 --> 0:07:26.050 It feels like a quilt if a quilt weren't made 0:07:26.050 --> 0:07:29.170 of fabric, but a fields and buildings and people rushing 0:07:29.210 --> 0:07:33.090 to work. It feels like a packed room where everybody's dancing. 0:07:34.369 --> 0:07:36.410 I asked Maya to show me where she first found 0:07:36.450 --> 0:07:39.610 the painting, and so we hit the streets to return 0:07:39.690 --> 0:07:41.170 to the scene of the trash. 0:07:41.250 --> 0:07:42.929 So we walk, Yeah, let's walk. 0:07:44.170 --> 0:07:51.810 We take a walk, as friends often do. Maya tells 0:07:51.810 --> 0:07:53.569 me the painting was in the trash with a bunch 0:07:53.610 --> 0:07:57.290 of other miscellaneous stuff, a TJ Max planter, a stained 0:07:57.330 --> 0:08:01.530 toy chest. Whoever disposed of it was probably moving. Maybe 0:08:01.570 --> 0:08:03.290 a neighbor can tell us who might have moved in 0:08:03.290 --> 0:08:06.449 the last couple months. But whereas I was picturing a 0:08:06.489 --> 0:08:09.569 small building with just a few buzzers to ring, it 0:08:09.610 --> 0:08:12.050 turns out. The trash heap was actually in front of 0:08:12.050 --> 0:08:16.770 a public housing complex, fourteen stories high, taking up a 0:08:16.810 --> 0:08:25.850 whole block. We loiter by the building's entrance and I 0:08:25.890 --> 0:08:27.810 try to catch people as they're going in or out. 0:08:28.010 --> 0:08:29.689 Can I ask you something weird and ask you a 0:08:29.690 --> 0:08:30.170 weird question? 0:08:30.330 --> 0:08:31.290 Anyone who moved out? 0:08:31.330 --> 0:08:33.450 Like in It's just about a painting that was left 0:08:33.450 --> 0:08:36.090 outside of painting. Some of my friend found a painting 0:08:36.250 --> 0:08:38.730 and she's trying to figure out, like what the deal is. 0:08:39.290 --> 0:08:40.890 Nobody knows anything. 0:08:41.690 --> 0:08:44.930 No, all right, thank you, no, thank you? 0:08:44.970 --> 0:08:46.050 No, all right, thank you. 0:08:52.130 --> 0:08:55.250 There's a lot I don't understand about art, like why 0:08:55.330 --> 0:08:58.450 are frames so expensive? But I can tell you this. 0:08:59.250 --> 0:09:03.090 Paintings they have two sides. There's a side with all 0:09:03.090 --> 0:09:05.370 the paint on it that people are always tripping over 0:09:05.410 --> 0:09:08.850 each other to talk about. But then there's the other side, 0:09:09.250 --> 0:09:10.970 the second or backside. 0:09:11.050 --> 0:09:12.210 If you will, do. 0:09:12.130 --> 0:09:14.090 You want to water, tear or anything? 0:09:14.330 --> 0:09:15.530 Or water would be great. 0:09:15.890 --> 0:09:18.610 And back in Maya's apartment, she explains that on this 0:09:18.770 --> 0:09:23.490 backside or dari are side, there's another clue. She and 0:09:23.530 --> 0:09:26.130 West were cleaning the painting off, getting it ready to 0:09:26.170 --> 0:09:29.690 hang on the wall when they saw it lightly Scrawled 0:09:29.690 --> 0:09:32.930 on the back of the canvas was an inscription. 0:09:33.090 --> 0:09:39.490 Painted nineteen seventy nine December title Genesis two Love, Happy 0:09:39.530 --> 0:09:44.050 Birthday from Frederick to Lowry Simms, and then he signed 0:09:44.090 --> 0:09:49.290 it and dated it in nineteen seventy nine. 0:09:51.490 --> 0:09:54.170 Maya may not have known the name Frederick Brown, but 0:09:54.250 --> 0:09:57.970 she knew the name Lowry Simms quite well. Larry was 0:09:58.010 --> 0:10:01.290 the president of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and before 0:10:01.330 --> 0:10:04.610 that she'd been the first black curator at the Metropolitan 0:10:04.690 --> 0:10:08.050 Museum of Art. She's now in her seventies and has 0:10:08.090 --> 0:10:10.330 had decades of him packed on the art world. 0:10:10.890 --> 0:10:13.010 She's reached living legends status. 0:10:13.370 --> 0:10:18.250 You can't help but be like, oh, okay, yeah, should 0:10:18.290 --> 0:10:21.010 I have not used a paper towel to clean this? 0:10:22.370 --> 0:10:24.730 The way Maya sees it, if you find something with 0:10:24.770 --> 0:10:28.210 someone else's name on it, whether that's a wallet, a cat, 0:10:28.410 --> 0:10:31.329 or a painting, you try to give it back to them. 0:10:31.730 --> 0:10:34.370 And so she wants to return the painting to its 0:10:34.490 --> 0:10:38.850 rightful owner, Lowry Simms. And once we find her, maybe 0:10:38.970 --> 0:10:41.490 Lowry can help piece together how the painting ended up 0:10:41.530 --> 0:10:45.730 in the garbage. I would like love to help try 0:10:45.770 --> 0:10:47.290 and get in touch. 0:10:47.090 --> 0:10:47.770 With this person. 0:10:47.970 --> 0:10:48.650 Yes, please. 0:10:48.810 --> 0:10:54.370 Okay, my garbage hunting an abject failure, but my people 0:10:54.450 --> 0:11:02.650 hunting that's going to be an abject success. I can't 0:11:02.650 --> 0:11:05.530 find an email address for Lowry, so I do what 0:11:05.570 --> 0:11:07.730 we all do when we want to pester someone more 0:11:07.730 --> 0:11:08.690 important than we are. 0:11:09.370 --> 0:11:10.890 I send a message on LinkedIn. 0:11:11.850 --> 0:11:14.050 I explain that I have a painting I think belongs 0:11:14.050 --> 0:11:17.090 to her, but perhaps fearing I'm running some sort of 0:11:17.130 --> 0:11:21.610 con where I trade paintings for Social Security numbers, Lowry doesn't. 0:11:21.330 --> 0:11:26.050 Respond, Hi, how are you? 0:11:26.770 --> 0:11:27.450 I need some. 0:11:27.330 --> 0:11:28.209 Sort of inroad. 0:11:28.570 --> 0:11:31.730 So I contact an artist named Chloe Bass, who's worked 0:11:31.730 --> 0:11:32.290 with Lowry. 0:11:32.690 --> 0:11:36.410 I don't know why she would even need LinkedIn, it's 0:11:36.490 --> 0:11:38.809 like her career is very well stablished. 0:11:39.570 --> 0:11:41.970 Chloe is also confused by how the painting ended up 0:11:42.010 --> 0:11:44.490 in the trash. She says Lowry can't have been the 0:11:44.530 --> 0:11:47.210 one to throw it away because Lowry doesn't live in 0:11:47.250 --> 0:11:50.970 Brooklyn and never has. Chloe agrees to reach out to 0:11:50.970 --> 0:11:54.170 her on my behalf and now that the request isn't 0:11:54.210 --> 0:11:57.970 coming from Rando on LinkedIn, but Aranda, who knows Chloe Bass, 0:11:58.490 --> 0:12:02.330 Lowry responds, we have a few back and forths over email. 0:12:02.850 --> 0:12:04.890 I'm hoping to schedule a time for us to talk 0:12:04.930 --> 0:12:08.330 on the phone, but Lowry is reluctant. She tells me 0:12:08.410 --> 0:12:10.250 she doesn't want to talk unless she can see a 0:12:10.250 --> 0:12:13.250 photo of the painting first. So I send her a photo, 0:12:13.650 --> 0:12:16.930 saying I'd be curious if she recognizes Genesis Too, and 0:12:17.010 --> 0:12:20.610 equally curious if she doesn't. Who knows. Maybe Brown's gift 0:12:20.610 --> 0:12:24.010 of the painting never even reached her. The next morning, 0:12:24.570 --> 0:12:32.330 Lowry writes back quote intriguing period That is the extent 0:12:32.490 --> 0:12:36.890 of her email, and after that her correspondence comes to 0:12:36.970 --> 0:13:04.890 a halt. Intriguing period. What did Lowry Simms's email mean. 0:13:05.690 --> 0:13:09.090 It's not the response you'd expect of someone recognizing a beloved, 0:13:09.170 --> 0:13:12.410 long lost painting. I start to wonder if maybe the 0:13:12.450 --> 0:13:15.650 painting is a fake. Genesis Too doesn't look like any 0:13:15.690 --> 0:13:19.290 of the other Frederick Brown paintings I've seen online. Maybe 0:13:19.330 --> 0:13:24.610 Lowry's intriguing means an intriguing forgery. So I contact Frederick 0:13:24.650 --> 0:13:27.850 Brown's trust. I figure they'll know best if the painting's 0:13:27.930 --> 0:13:31.930 really his, and five days later I get confirmation that 0:13:32.010 --> 0:13:35.130 the painting is legit. I receive a call from a 0:13:35.130 --> 0:13:37.930 man named Bentley, who teaches at Fordham and is a 0:13:37.930 --> 0:13:42.250 PhD candidate at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Bentley 0:13:42.330 --> 0:13:45.650 is also it turns out, Frederick J. Brown's son. 0:13:46.370 --> 0:13:52.010 So here's the backstory. Yeah, the painting is part of 0:13:52.050 --> 0:13:55.610 a larger painting called Genesis. Okay, that's in the collection 0:13:55.770 --> 0:13:56.250 of the MET. 0:13:56.730 --> 0:13:56.930 Oh. 0:13:56.930 --> 0:13:57.890 WHOA, I didn't know that. 0:13:57.970 --> 0:14:00.010 So my dad became the youngest artist to be in 0:14:00.050 --> 0:14:01.490 the collection of the Met at that time. 0:14:01.610 --> 0:14:02.570 So I get thirty three. 0:14:03.130 --> 0:14:05.530 Geez, let's say think that actually thirty. 0:14:05.330 --> 0:14:10.690 Four okay, and like on that right as a black artist. 0:14:13.130 --> 0:14:14.410 So Part one is at the MET. 0:14:15.530 --> 0:14:19.410 Part one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part two 0:14:19.930 --> 0:14:29.850 in a trash heap on a Brooklyn sidewalk. Bentley can't 0:14:29.850 --> 0:14:32.810 wait to see his father's painting in person, so he 0:14:32.850 --> 0:14:35.810 makes the drive from the Bronx to Maya's apartment in Brooklyn. 0:14:36.610 --> 0:14:41.290 Hi. 0:14:37.930 --> 0:14:45.770 And I'm hoping maybe Bentley will have insight into how 0:14:45.810 --> 0:14:48.850 his dad's painting ended up in the trash. Should we 0:14:48.890 --> 0:14:51.050 look at this painting and then maybe we can talk? 0:14:51.690 --> 0:14:52.530 Yeah, I love to. 0:14:53.290 --> 0:14:55.850 We all file into the living room, where Maya and 0:14:55.890 --> 0:14:58.410 her husband West have propped the painting up against a 0:14:58.490 --> 0:15:01.490 wall for Bentley to look at Bentley takes it in. 0:15:05.050 --> 0:15:10.450 This is amazing. It's just like, this makes me so happy. 0:15:10.970 --> 0:15:11.770 This is your first time. 0:15:12.690 --> 0:15:13.650 Yeah, I've never seen this. 0:15:14.490 --> 0:15:17.490 Bentley's dedicated years of his life to his father's work, 0:15:18.050 --> 0:15:20.090 but he can't tell me how the painting ended up 0:15:20.130 --> 0:15:23.490 in the trash. Before I reached out, he hadn't even 0:15:23.530 --> 0:15:27.050 known Genesis Too existed. He bends down to get a 0:15:27.050 --> 0:15:27.730 closer look. 0:15:30.090 --> 0:15:34.010 He didn't just stumble upon any piece within his catalog. 0:15:34.130 --> 0:15:37.050 He stumbled upon a extremely important piece. 0:15:38.010 --> 0:15:40.530 It turns out the Genesis two was painted at the 0:15:40.570 --> 0:15:43.890 moment when Brown was making a transition. That's why it 0:15:43.890 --> 0:15:47.570 looks so different than anything else I'd seen online. Brown 0:15:47.650 --> 0:15:51.010 was moving away from abstraction and towards more figurative work. 0:15:51.610 --> 0:15:54.490 So among the shapes and lines, you see faces, an 0:15:54.530 --> 0:15:55.970 airplane and. 0:15:56.250 --> 0:15:58.850 The fox figure, and it's like a self portrait. 0:15:59.170 --> 0:16:02.410 Do you know why your dad chose fox as a 0:16:02.450 --> 0:16:04.050 symbol of representation. 0:16:04.250 --> 0:16:04.970 That's a good question. 0:16:05.530 --> 0:16:07.770 You have to be a fox to survive in the 0:16:07.890 --> 0:16:11.410 art world as a black man, have to be. Everybody 0:16:11.450 --> 0:16:14.770 looks at the fox as like like a nefarious sort 0:16:14.770 --> 0:16:16.770 of character, right, But my dad kind of looked at 0:16:16.770 --> 0:16:18.770 it as like, nah, that's just like, that's just a 0:16:18.810 --> 0:16:20.810 cad that has to do whatever has to do to survive. 0:16:27.050 --> 0:16:30.490 Bentley tells us about his dad's life, about Frederick Brown's 0:16:30.570 --> 0:16:33.810 childhood on the South Side of Chicago, how Brown's dad 0:16:33.890 --> 0:16:37.810 managed to juke joint, hanging around blues musicians like Muddy Waters. 0:16:38.530 --> 0:16:41.810 Early on, color made a strong impression on Brown. He 0:16:41.850 --> 0:16:44.530 grew up mixing paint for the luxury cars his uncle 0:16:44.570 --> 0:16:48.370 worked on. Later, Brown found work in the steel mills, 0:16:48.770 --> 0:16:51.170 the colors of the hot metal burning their way into 0:16:51.210 --> 0:16:51.970 his mind. 0:16:51.970 --> 0:16:54.210 Because he'd always talked about how like bright orange the 0:16:54.370 --> 0:16:56.930 ingots were. You can see the bright orange in there. 0:16:58.130 --> 0:17:01.770 Brown attended college in Illinois and eventually moved to New York, 0:17:02.010 --> 0:17:04.010 where he set up shop in a huge loft on 0:17:04.050 --> 0:17:07.970 Worcester Street and soho other artists and musicians are always 0:17:07.970 --> 0:17:12.010 stopping by for Mayor Bearden, BB King, John Lennon, and 0:17:12.090 --> 0:17:16.450 Yoko Ono. The Western Street loft is where Brown painted Genesis. 0:17:16.770 --> 0:17:19.489 So then after that he signed with Marlboro Gallery, and 0:17:19.530 --> 0:17:22.609 so that was a big deal because Marlboro Gallery was 0:17:22.609 --> 0:17:25.570 the hottest gallery at that time. We talk about like 0:17:25.649 --> 0:17:28.489 Basque Yacht being the first black artist to sort of 0:17:28.530 --> 0:17:31.129 make that break. It was really my dad, like, I'm 0:17:31.129 --> 0:17:33.369 not even gonna hold you like I'm I'm not going 0:17:33.449 --> 0:17:35.369 to I'm not going to sugarcoat it, you know. 0:17:36.409 --> 0:17:39.010 But while Bosquia went on to become a household name 0:17:39.409 --> 0:17:43.449 selling paintings for millions of dollars, Frederick J. Brown did not. 0:17:44.609 --> 0:17:48.369 So what happened. It turns out that even after signing 0:17:48.369 --> 0:17:51.090 with Marlborough, Brown wasn't being shown and the way he 0:17:51.129 --> 0:17:51.850 thought he should be. 0:17:52.530 --> 0:17:55.330 My dad kept trying to get like a retrospective and 0:17:55.369 --> 0:17:56.889 couldn't get a retrospective anywhere. 0:17:57.449 --> 0:18:00.050 So Brown took matters into his own hands when a 0:18:00.090 --> 0:18:03.330 Taiwanese artist named C. J. Yao invited him to come 0:18:03.369 --> 0:18:07.530 to China. It was nineteen eighty eight and communist China 0:18:07.730 --> 0:18:10.850 was just starting to culturally open up. Only one other 0:18:10.889 --> 0:18:14.649 American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, had shown work in the country. 0:18:15.449 --> 0:18:19.850 But together Brown and Yao decided, let's do a Frederick J. 0:18:19.929 --> 0:18:25.930 Brown retrospective in China. 0:18:26.010 --> 0:18:28.689 And they decided to do it in the National Museum 0:18:28.730 --> 0:18:32.609 of China, which like is on Tienamen Square and it's 0:18:32.649 --> 0:18:34.770 like an insanely huge building. 0:18:35.490 --> 0:18:38.129 The museum had been filled with relative Chairman Mao and 0:18:38.169 --> 0:18:41.609 the Communist Revolution. But all that was cleared out to 0:18:41.689 --> 0:18:44.810 make room for one hundred Frederick J. Brown paintings. 0:18:45.050 --> 0:18:45.810 And he had a lot. 0:18:45.850 --> 0:18:49.889 I mean, he had sixty thousand people a day for 0:18:49.970 --> 0:18:50.929 like thirty days. 0:18:51.050 --> 0:18:51.490 Wow. 0:18:53.209 --> 0:18:56.770 He had to go to China to have a red. 0:18:56.929 --> 0:18:58.409 He had to go to China to be seen as 0:18:58.409 --> 0:18:59.290 an American. 0:18:58.970 --> 0:19:03.649 Artist because in America, Brown was seen as a black artist. 0:19:04.290 --> 0:19:07.249 And despite what he accomplished in China, when he returned 0:19:07.250 --> 0:19:10.169 to the States, he hadn't earned any additional prestige. 0:19:11.010 --> 0:19:15.570 Instead, Marlborough was pissed that he did the show because 0:19:15.570 --> 0:19:18.889 they did it without his without their consent. He took 0:19:18.889 --> 0:19:22.050 out a loan to do it himself of half a 0:19:22.090 --> 0:19:25.250 million dollars. He had no way of paying it back. 0:19:26.530 --> 0:19:29.289 So that was like the beginning of I don't want 0:19:29.290 --> 0:19:30.810 to say the end, but it was the beginning of 0:19:30.850 --> 0:19:31.850 like a real hardship. 0:19:32.970 --> 0:19:35.850 Marlborough dropped him. The bank was trying to take all 0:19:35.929 --> 0:19:38.969 his work, which he'd put up as collateral. He was 0:19:39.010 --> 0:19:41.810 only able to save some paintings by erasing his name 0:19:42.010 --> 0:19:45.369 entirely so the bank would think they weren't his. Other 0:19:45.449 --> 0:19:48.529 paintings he hid in the walls of his Worcester Street loft. 0:19:55.050 --> 0:19:57.570 Brown continued to paint for the rest of his life, 0:19:57.889 --> 0:20:00.369 but he never regained that blue trip cachet from his 0:20:00.449 --> 0:20:03.330 early career. He didn't become a name that a non 0:20:03.449 --> 0:20:06.129 art person like me, or even an art person like 0:20:06.209 --> 0:20:11.210 Maya would immediately recognize. Brown died of cancer in twenty twelve, 0:20:11.730 --> 0:20:15.330 and ten years later, Bentley's frustrated that his father still 0:20:15.369 --> 0:20:17.530 doesn't have his rightful place in the cannon. 0:20:18.090 --> 0:20:21.570 You go up to these people that are gatekeepers and 0:20:21.609 --> 0:20:25.170 you plead your case. Most people are just like, eh, whatever, 0:20:25.689 --> 0:20:28.809 there's not a market for it right now, right and 0:20:28.850 --> 0:20:32.090 it's it's like, man, fuck you. 0:20:33.409 --> 0:20:36.730 It's the same story for a lot of black artists. Sure, 0:20:36.810 --> 0:20:40.129 these gatekeepers want black art, Bentley says that they want 0:20:40.129 --> 0:20:42.929 a particular kind of black art. They want art they 0:20:42.970 --> 0:20:45.210 can look at and go, ah, yes, I get it. 0:20:45.609 --> 0:20:48.369 This is about the politics of being black in America. 0:20:48.889 --> 0:20:51.530 When we think about black art or black artists, right, 0:20:52.250 --> 0:20:55.409 we are very quick to add like a political tag 0:20:55.490 --> 0:20:57.690 to the thing. I mean, I guess you could argue 0:20:57.689 --> 0:20:59.570 that blackness in and of itself is a political thing. 0:21:00.330 --> 0:21:03.169 But my dad was kind of much more of the 0:21:03.209 --> 0:21:06.250 camp of like just like make art for art's sake. 0:21:07.010 --> 0:21:10.409 But purely aesthetic work by a black art. That's what 0:21:10.530 --> 0:21:11.810 ends up in the garbage. 0:21:12.290 --> 0:21:16.569 It's such a painful feeling. It's such a yeah, painful 0:21:16.609 --> 0:21:19.449 is the word. And such a painful feeling when you 0:21:19.570 --> 0:21:24.289 know that, like you have such a special world and 0:21:24.409 --> 0:21:26.810 people don't give a shit. 0:21:27.850 --> 0:21:28.530 What is I mean? 0:21:28.570 --> 0:21:31.649 Like if you have to describe, like what what that 0:21:31.770 --> 0:21:32.929 special world was? 0:21:33.050 --> 0:21:33.129 Like? 0:21:33.209 --> 0:21:35.809 What how would you explain it? 0:21:35.889 --> 0:21:38.889 Bentley points at the painting still leaning against the wall? 0:21:39.449 --> 0:21:39.930 Is that right? 0:21:39.970 --> 0:21:40.250 There? 0:21:42.050 --> 0:21:49.729 So much color, so much emotion, so much beauty. You 0:21:50.129 --> 0:21:55.530 you two recognized it. The beanting definitely called to me. Yeah, 0:21:55.570 --> 0:21:57.249 I mean you rescued it right like, and it's like 0:21:57.290 --> 0:21:59.850 a piece of my dad. It's like his energy, his 0:21:59.929 --> 0:22:03.929 spirit is him. You know. That was my dad calling 0:22:03.929 --> 0:22:05.090 out to you. That's what that was. 0:22:06.090 --> 0:22:06.129 Like. 0:22:06.209 --> 0:22:13.209