NEW ORLEANS.- The New Orleans Museum of Art presents "Frederick J. Brown: Portraits in Jazz, Blues and Other Icons," on view through March 16, 2003.  More than 30 paintings from three decades of work by acclaimed American painter Frederick J. Brown will be featured in this retrospective exhibition. Brown is a modern American storyteller; his paintings celebrate trailblazers who have shaped and directed American culture. In the exhibition, Brown pays tribute to such icons as Louis Armstrong, Ornette Coleman, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. Organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. American painter Frederick J. Brown is well known for his large-scale portraits of jazz and blues musicians. The bold brushstrokes and brilliant colors in his work reveal his interest not only in music, but also in Abstract Expressionism. In addition to jazz and blues-related subjects, Brown is inspired by icons from American history, religion, and popular culture.

Born in Greensboro, Georgia, in 1945, Frederick J. Brown grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago near the steel mills on the south side. Blues and jazz music have always been a part of his life. While growing up, Brown’s father was friends with musicians Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. And states Brown, "Jimmy Reed just lived up the street." 2

In 1968, Brown graduated from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale with a B.A. in art and psychology. After college, he moved to New York City where he met several jazz musicians, including Ornette Coleman. Brown often brought brushes, paint, and canvas to Coleman’s loft and worked while the band was rehearsing. Brown says of musical inspiration, "I can hear the tones Muddy Waters had in his voice and turn that into color, shape, [and] image." 3 He feels that making music is like creating visual art. "Like the best painters, those musicians had the ability to strike the universal heart chord."4

While living in New York City in 1975, Brown befriended Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning. De Kooning inspired Brown by telling him that "art is a very old profession, which originated with the shaman in the cave. Basically it is magic and has healing qualities." 5 Like the European Expressionist painters, "Brown sees his own expressionism as a search for spirituality." 6 Before applying spontaneous brushstrokes on the canvas, Brown often does research about his subjects. He frequently works from photographs: "I’m not painting from life—since most of them are dead, I’m working from photographs—and I need something to fill in the outline, I feel like I’m creating a painted body for the spirit to inhabit it. I’m trying to get a feeling rather than just a likeness."

Frederick J. Brown: Portraits in Jazz, Blues, and Other Icons includes portraits of musicians and artists such as Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Ornette Coleman, Willem de Kooning, and more. In 1988, Brown’s paintings were displayed in the National Museum of the Chinese Revolution in Beijing, China. Two of the major artworks in the Beijing exhibition—Stagger Lee and Bessie Smith—are shown in this exhibition.