2010 Frederick J. Brown Going Home Quadriptych
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GUEST:
They were painted by an old friend of mine named Frederick J. Brown. I met Fred in college, and it was in the late '60s. And most Black people were wearing Afros and dashikis.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh, there we go.
GUEST:
And Frederick wore suits and ties.
APPRAISER:
So he was different in that sense.
GUEST:
Yes, he was, and he always considered himself an artist, and he always felt that he'd be a famous artist one day. He invited me by his apartment. (laughs): And he opened the door, and he had on a smoking jacket and an ascot.
APPRAISER:
(laughing)
GUEST:
And I was doing all I could to get my hair to stand all over my head and wear something, uh, Afrocentric.
APPRAISER (laughs): Yeah, yeah.
GUEST:
And he was, uh, Mr. Sophisticated.
APPRAISER:
He was like a gentleman.
GUEST:
Mr. Sophisticated. When he dressed up, he was dressed.
APPRAISER:
What school did you go to, that all of this happened?
GUEST:
Oh, I graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
APPRAISER:
And that's where he was going, as well?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
So did you guys take any classes together?
GUEST:
No, he was an art major at the time.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Art or architecture, I'm not quite sure.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
But I was, uh, an elementary education major.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
But we just knew each other, and we maintained this friendship, uh, until he, he passed. I went to see him a few months before, uh, he passed. He passed in 2012. I think I got them in 2011. I don't know the occasion.
APPRAISER:
Do...
GUESTL He said, "I've got some... I've got some art I've got to send you." And I said, "Okay." (chuckles) And he did.
APPRAISER:
And what do you know about the pieces themselves?
GUEST:
There are four pieces in this series, and he's entitled them Going Home. Um, I'm not sure what that means, but I like them.
APPRAISER (chuckles): Right. So as you say, Frederick Brown, he was actually born in 1945 in Georgia, and he grew up in Chicago. He ends up in New York, and finally between New York and Scottsdale, Arizona. He's an African American artist. And especially now, just in general, African American art is really taking off. He is known as an Abstract Expressionist painter, but he also has done portraits that are kind of stylized, and was a big fan of jazz music, so that also informs his work quite a bit, but these are quite lovely pieces. If you look at the back, he's inscribed them to you. He's put the title, Going Home. And notice here, he's got a one over four. So this is the first of four images. He's signed it here, uh, "F. Brown," and he's dated it 2010. But look at here, he's in, indicating how he wants them displayed, as we've displayed them here. He wants 1,2,3,4 horizontally arranged. So what we have here is a quadriptych. In other words, a four-panel work of art. And they're mixed media on paper. It's mostly acrylic, but it looks like a little watercolor mixed in there. His work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum and some very prestigious museums. And so he's acknowledged in the art world as an established and accomplished artist. His portraits, I think, uh, are more popular and more, he's more known for. But these pieces also are, are sought after. For these four pieces, as a complete set, retail value would be $20,000.
GUEST:
That sounds good.
(both laugh)
GUEST:
That's very good. Yeah, thank you.
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