#47 Frederick J. Brown

Hello, Jonathan. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:10.920 Yeah, is everything okay? 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:11.440 Uh? 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:12.120 Huh? 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.560 To what do I owe this? 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.880 This pleasure? I'm reporting this week's episode. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:20.520 Yes, that's right. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.759 I don't know why I said it was such trepidation 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.599 in my voice. I am yeah you are. Every episode needs. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.560 What you got to have the theme music? 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:29.720 Yeah, even before that. 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.760 Oh, I know what you're getting at the cold open where. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.040 You call someone trying to live their life, like your 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.280 friend Jackie Cohen, and ask them a bunch of stuff 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.120 that they don't have the time or interest in answering. 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:44.839 I see what's going on. 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.920 The tables have turned. See how you like being called 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.159 out of the blue, asked a bunch of questions? 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:50.600 Do you like it? 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:50.879 Oh? 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.040 You like it? Do you like it? If I start 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.320 saying like what do you like better? Lollipops or gum? 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:57.200 Why too? 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.400 I've alreat had a small hat on with that endear 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:00.880 you to it? 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:01.720 Oh? Definitely. 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:03.720 If you were a dog, what do you think your 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:04.440 name would be? 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.720 Probably the same name, Jonathan Goldstein. 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.160 Do you remember that time that you referred to George 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:14.520 Clooney as the gray haired doctor from er I did. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:16.360 No idea? 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.000 Yeah you did, Yes, you did. You were like who's 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.240 that gray haired doctor from R And I was like 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:22.600 George Clooney and you were. 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.360 Like, yeah, I guess the thing that we're learning from 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.240 this is I like being Jackie Cohen. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:39.120 From Gimlet Media. I'm Khalila Holt and this is Heavyweight 0:01:39.920 --> 0:02:03.080 Today's episode Frederick J. Brown right after the break. Every 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.160 Friday night during the pandemic, I'd get on a Google 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.960 hangout with a group of my boyfriend's friends and we'd 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.480 all play Mario kartlind you, how did you see spread? 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.760 Again? There's no PAM six races. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.079 These Mario Kart sessions started back in the days when 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.919 we could barely leave the house due to COVID restrictions, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.000 so it felt like an escape to log on to 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.880 carelessly karine in a small car or kart if you will, 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.520 through a gold mine or off a waterfall. In those 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.760 dark days, a few minutes on Mount Warrio was the 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:40.360 closest thing I could get to a vacation, right, let's 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.960 be bad. That being said, I also found these Mario 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.960 Kart hangouts deeply intimidating because I'm not good at Mario Kart. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:56.400 My gameplay mostly sounds like this no or this along 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.919 with the Mario karting, there was also non Mario chatting. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:05.080 Oh I'm happy sat on Instagram, Happy Believe Birthday. 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.760 And chatting of any kind is another thing I'm not 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.919 good at. Every so often I'd weigh in with something 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.679 like pretty crazy. This was essentially the extent of my 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.600 engagement until the night Maya told us about the painting. 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.320 Maya found the painting sitting in a pile of trash 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.880 on the sidewalk, and it grabbed her instantly. It was 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.799 only later, when she took it home that she saw 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:37.360 the artist's signature, Frederick J. Brown. Although Maya works in art, 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.440 the name was unfamiliar to her, so she googled him, 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.240 and what popped up was a lengthy New York Times 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.400 obituary from twenty twelve, praising Brown's work and citing Williem 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.280 Dakooning as an early mentor. Brown, it turned out, was 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.760 an acclaimed black artist known for his portraits of jazz 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:59.040 and blues musicians. He had work in the Smithsonian. As 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.600 Maya made her way his biography, she slowly realized that 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.080 the painting she'd been so instinctively drawn to was actually 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.200 the work of an important artist, and so Maya was 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:21.800 left wondering, how did Brown's painting end up in the trash? Oh, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.560 very regal building on a cold Friday afternoon. I pay 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.000 Maya visit her Brooklyn apartment building to follow up and 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.039 learn more. And who knows, maybe my boyfriend's friend can 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:34.719 simply become a friend. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.960 Oh, very like regal building. 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:44.640 I feel like. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.800 My irl chatting is truly no better than my Mario 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.160 Kart chatting saying here else it is. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:53.640 Yeah. 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:55.960 What I couldn't see on the small square of our 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.480 Mario Kart calls was that every surface of Maya's apartment 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.920 is covered in art. Not only has Maya worked in 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.320 the art world for many years at galleries art publishers, 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.279 her husband, Wes, is also an artist himself. He even 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.360 proposed to Maya on the steps of the met There's 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.240 really only one spot in their apartment that's empty, a 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.880 blank wall above the couch. They'd been waiting year after 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.360 year for the perfect work of art to hang there, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.200 and now with the discovery of the Frederick J. Brown painting, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.240 they knew they'd found it. Maya says she spotted the 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.000 painting while heading home from a COVID test. It was gigantic, 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.719 and she still had a mile to walk. She knew 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:38.640 it didn't really make sense to take it with her, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.040 but she couldn't walk away from it either. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.360 I just kept going back to it. It just was 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.320 different from all of the other paintings I've seen. It 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:55.040 just really kind of grabbed me, and I started trying 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:56.479 to get it out of the trash. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.960 Clutching the huge painting to her body. Mayawardly waddled the 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:01.560 mile home. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.960 There's like a little garbage juice at the bottom and 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.159 a little dust at the top, and I was walking. 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:11.440 I wouldn't let it sit on the ground. 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.320 I know I had probably been on the street all day, 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.839 but I didn't want it to be on the street anymore. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.640 It is nearly as long as I am tall, and 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.160 I'm five four, lots of color and patterns. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.920 Despite my fondness for the audio medium, it fails to 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.359 translate the force of Brown's painting. It's not as easily 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:41.080 encapsulated as say the Mona Lisa Smiling Woman or American 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:47.040 Gothic unsmiling woman and man. It's mostly abstract, but then 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.200 there are these tiny spots with recognizable figures. 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:55.320 You can see faces and there's these horizontal bands that 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.360 sort of organize the composition. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.599 Admiring the painting with makes me feel like I'm at 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.360 a fancy party, enjoying or jerves, but also panicked that 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.120 I have nothing intelligent to say that kind OFT's like 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:13.840 a seven. The painting feels like a stained glass cabinet 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.800 full of curios. It feels like a quilt if a 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.720 quilt weren't made of fabric, but a fields and buildings 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.760 and people rushing to work. It feels like a packed 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.960 room where everybody's dancing. I asked Maya to show me 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.480 where she first found the painting, and so we hit 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.200 the streets to return to the scene of the trash. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.400 So we walk, Yeah, let's walk. We take a walk, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:43.960 as friends often do. Maya tells me the painting was 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.320 in the trash with a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff, 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.800 a TJ Max planter, a stained toy chest. Whoever disposed 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.720 of it was probably moving. Maybe a neighbor can tell 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:55.720 us who might have moved in the last couple months. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.120 But whereas I was picturing a small building with just 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.600 a few buzzers, it turns out the trash heap was 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.880 actually in front of a public housing complex fourteen stories high, 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:16.280 taking up a whole block. We loiter by the building's 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.680 entrance and I try to catch people as they're going 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:20.640 in or out. Can I ask you something weird and 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:22.800 ask you a weird question? Anyone who moved out? Like 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.320 in it's just about a painting that was left outside 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.000 of painting. Some my friend found a painting and she's 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.160 trying to figure out, like what the deal is. Nobody 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.439 knows anything. No, all right, thank you, no, thank you? No, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:45.040 all right, thank you. There's a lot I don't understand 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.000 about art, like why are frames so expensive? But I 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:53.760 can tell you this. Paintings. They have two sides. There's 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:55.800 a side with all the paint on it that people 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.599 are always tripping over each other to talk about. But 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.640 then there's the other side, the second or backside. If 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.520 you will, do you want a water tear or anything? 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.000 Water would be great. And back in Maya's apartment, she 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.120 explains that on this backside, or dari are side, there's 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.480 another clue. She and West were cleaning the painting off, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.920 getting it ready to hang on the wall when they 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.160 saw it. Lightly scrawled on the back of the canvas 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:24.280 was an inscription. 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:30.880 Painted nineteen seventy nine December title Genesis two Love Happy 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.480 Birthday from Frederick to Lowry Simms, and then he signed 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.800 it and dated it in nineteen seventy nine. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.559 Maya may not have known the name Frederick Brown, but 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.400 she knew the name Lowry Simms quite well. Larry was 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.680 the president of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and before 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.000 that she'd been the first black curator at the Metropolitan 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.440 Museum of Art. She's now in her seventies and has 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.520 had dec it's of impact on the art world. She's 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:04.280 reached living legend status. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:09.679 You can't help but be like, oh, okay, yeah, should 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.400 I have not used a paper towel to clean this? 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.120 The way Maya sees it, if you find something with 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.480 someone else's name on it, whether that's a wallet, a cat, 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.240 or a painting, you try to give it back to them. 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.839 And so she wants to return the painting to its 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:30.320 rightful owner, Lowry Simms. And once we find her, maybe 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.920 Lowry can help piece together how the painting ended up 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:37.120 in the garbage. I would like love to help try 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.200 and get in touch with this person. 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:40.559 Yes, please, okay? 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:46.200 My garbage hunting an abject failure but my people hunting 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:54.320 that's going to be an abject success. I can't find 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.079 an email address for Lowry. So I do what we 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.559 all do when we want to pester someone more important 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.319 than we are. I send a message on LinkedIn. I 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.760 explain that I have a painting I think belongs to her, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.120 but perhaps fearing I'm running some sort of con where 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:16.800 I trade paintings for Social Security numbers, Lowry doesn't respond, HI, 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.040 how are you I need some sort of inroad? So 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.640 I contact an artist named Chloe Bass, who's worked with Lowry. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.360 I don't know why she would even need LinkedIn, how 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.080 it's like her career is very well stablished. 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.400 Chloe is also confused by how the painting ended up 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.920 in the trash. She says Lowry can't have been the 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.599 one to throw it away because Lowry doesn't live in 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.360 Brooklyn and never has. Chloe agrees to reach out to 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.600 her on my behalf and now that the request isn't 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.320 coming from Rando on LinkedIn, but Randa, who knows Chloe Bass, 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.160 Lowry responds, we have a few back and forths of 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.960 her email. I'm hoping to schedule a time for us 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.280 to talk on the phone, but Lowry is reluctant. She 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.360 tells me she's doesn't want to talk unless she can 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.040 see a photo of the painting first. So I send 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.040 her a photo, saying I'd be curious if she recognizes 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.920 Genesis Too, and equally curious if she doesn't. Who knows. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.560 Maybe Brown's gift of the painting never even reached her. 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:22.839 The next morning, Lowry writes back quote intriguing period. That 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.960 is the extent of her email, and after that our 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:52.600 correspondence comes to a halt. Intriguing period. What did Lowry 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.480 Simms's email mean. It's not the response you'd expect of 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.640 someone recognizing a beloved, long lost painting. I start to 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.760 wonder if maybe the painting is a fake. Genesis Too 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.360 doesn't look like any of the other Frederick Brown paintings 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:11.680 I've seen online. Maybe Lowry's intriguing means an intriguing forgery. 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.800 So I contact Frederick Brown's trust. I figure they'll know 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.360 best if the painting's really his, and five days later 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.520 I get confirmation that the painting is legit. I receive 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.120 a call from a man named Bentley, who teaches at 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.480 Fordham and is a PhD candidate at the NYU Institute 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.839 of Fine Arts. Bentley is also it turns out, Frederick J. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:34.760 Brown's son. 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:41.000 So here's the backstory. Yeah, the painting is part of 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.680 a larger painting called Genesis. Okay, that's in the collection 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:45.360 of the MET. 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:46.880 Oh, whoa, I didn't know that. 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.079 So my dad became the youngest artist to be in 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.079 the collection of the MET at that time. I get 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.040 thirty three. Geez, let's say that. Actually thirty four okay, 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.760 and like on top of that, right as a black artist, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.520 right this deal? So Part one is at the MET. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.439 Part one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part two 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:18.920 in a trash heap on a Brooklyn sidewalk. Bentley can't 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.880 wait to see his father's painting in person, so he 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.840 makes the drive from the Bronx to Maya's apartment in Brooklyn. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:25.840 Hi. 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:34.880 And I'm hoping maybe Bentley will have insight into how 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.920 his dad's painting ended up in the trash. Should we 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.160 look at this painting and then maybe we can talk. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:44.920 We all file into the living room, where Maya and 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.520 her husband West have propped the painting up against a 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.480 wall for Bentley to look at. Bentley takes it in. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:59.560 This is amazing it's just like, this makes me so happy. 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:00.880 He's it's your first time. 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:02.640 Yeah, I've never seen this. 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.560 Bentley's dedicated years of his life to his father's work, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.200 but he can't tell me how the painting ended up 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.560 in the trash. Before I reached out, he hadn't even 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.120 known Genesis Too existed. He bends down to get a 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:16.760 closer look. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.120 He didn't just stumble upon any piece within his catalog. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.160 He stumbled upon a extremely important piece. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.600 It turns out the Genesis two was painted at the 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.960 moment when Brown was making a transition. That's why it 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.640 looks so different than anything else I'd seen online. Brown 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.080 was moving away from abstraction and towards more figurative work. 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.600 So among the shapes and lines, you see faces, an 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.920 airplane and the fox figure, and it's like a self portrait. 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.480 Do you know why your dad chose fox as a 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:53.120 symbol of representation. 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.000 That's a good question. You have to be a fox 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.080 to survive in the art world as a black man, 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.520 have to be. Everybody looks at the fox as like 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.200 like a nefarious sort of character, right, But my dad 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:06.880 kind of looked at it as like, nah, that's just 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:08.920 like that's just a cad that has to do whatever 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:09.920 it has to do to survive. 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.600 Bentley tells us about his dad's life, about Frederick Brown's 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.840 childhood on the South Side of Chicago, how Brown's dad 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.920 managed to juke joint, hanging around blues musicians like Muddy Waters. 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.920 Early on, color made a strong impression on Brown. He 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.600 grew up mixing paint for the luxury cars his uncle 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.480 worked on. Later, Brown found work in the steel mills, 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.240 the colors of the hot metal burning their way into 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:41.000 his mind. 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.320 Because he'd always talked about how like bright orange the 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.000 ingots were. You can see the bright orange in there. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.840 Brown attended college in Illinois and eventually moved to New York, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.080 where he set up shop in a huge loft on 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:57.080 Worcester Street and soho other artists and musicians were always 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.120 stopping by, for Mayor Bearden, BB King, John Lennon, and 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.359 Yoko Ono. The Western Street loft is where Brown painted Genesis. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.560 So then after that he signed with Marlboro Gallery, and 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.680 so that was a big deal because Marlboro Gallery was 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.639 the hottest gallery at that time. We talk about like 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.800 Basqueiacht being the first black artist to sort of make 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.280 that break. It was really my dad, like, I'm not 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.600 even gonna hold you like I'm I'm not going to 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:23.520 I'm not going to. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.920 Sugarcoat it, you know. But while Bosquia went on to 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.640 become a household name, selling paintings for millions of dollars, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:36.160 Frederick J. Brown did not. So what happened. It turns 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.280 out that even after signing with Marlborough, Brown wasn't being 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:40.879 shown in the way he thought he should be. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.440 My dad kept trying to get like a retrospective, and 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:45.919 he couldn't get a retrospective anywhere. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.119 So Brown took matters into his own hands when a 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.400 Taiwanese artist named C. J. Yao invited him to come 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.600 to China. It was nineteen eighty eight and communist China 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.879 was just starting to culturally open up. Only one other 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.680 American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, had shown work in the country. 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.879 But together Brown and Yao decided, let's do a Frederick J. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.480 Brown retrospective in China. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.800 And they decided to do it in the National Museum 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.680 of China, which like is on Tienamen Square and it's 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:23.840 like an insanely huge building. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.200 The museum had been filled with relative chairman Mao and 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.680 the Communist revolution. But all that was cleared out to 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.240 make room for one hundred Frederick J. Brown paintings, and. 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.680 He had a lot. I mean he had sixty thousand 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.000 people a day for like thirty days. 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:40.400 Wow. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.840 He had to go to China to have a red. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:47.520 He had to go to China to be seen as 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:48.320 an American. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.679 Artist because in America, Brown was seen as a black artist. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.359 And despite what he accomplished in China, when he returned 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.240 to the States, he hadn't earned any additional prestige. 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.640 Instead, Marlborough was pissed that he did the show because 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.960 they did it without his without their consent. He took 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.080 out a loan to do it himself of half a 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.280 million dollars. He had no way of paying it back. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.399 So that was like the beginning of I don't want 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:19.879 to say the end, but it was the beginning of 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:20.880 like a real hardship. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.919 Marlborough dropped him. The bank was trying to take all 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.040 his work, which he'd put up as collateral. He was 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.880 only able to save some paintings by erasing his name 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.480 entirely so the bank would think they weren't his. Other 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.600 paintings he hid in the walls of his Worcester Street loft. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.440 Brown continued to paint for the rest of his life, 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.440 but he never regained that blue trip cachet from his 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.400 early career. He didn't become a name that a non 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.200 art person like me, or even an art person like 0:19:55.320 --> 0:20:00.000 Maya would immediately recognize. Brown died of cancer in twenty twelve, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.440 and ten years later, Bentley's frustrated that his father still 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.600 doesn't have his rightful place in the cannon. 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.560 You go up to these people that are gatekeepers and 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.160 you plead your case. Most people are just like, whatever, 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.840 there's not a market for it right now, right, and 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.159 it's like it's like, man, fuck you. 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.840 It's the same story for a lot of black artists. Sure, 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.200 these gatekeepers want black art, Bentley says, but they want 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.040 a particular kind of black art. They want art they 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.200 can look at and go, ah, yes, I get it. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.320 This is about the politics of being black in America. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.560 When we think about black art or black artists, right, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.480 we are very quick to add like a political tag 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:46.800 to the thing. I mean, I guess you could argue 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:48.639 that blackness in and of itself is a political thing. 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.240 But my dad was kind of much more of the 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.080 camp of like just like make art for art's. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:59.359 Sake, but purely aesthetic work by a black artist. That's 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:00.800 what ends up in the garbage. 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.679 It's such a painful feeling. It's such a yeah, painful 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.480 is the word, And such a painful feeling when you 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.320 know that, like you have such a special world and 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.920 people don't give a shit. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:17.600 What is I mean? 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.720 Like if you have to describe, like what what that 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:21.960 special world was? 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:22.200 Like? 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.840 What how would you explain it? Bentley points of the 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:27.960 painting still leaning against the wall? 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:34.640 Is that right there? So much color, so much emotion, 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.520 so much beauty. You two recognized it. 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:43.720 The beanting definitely called to me. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.240 Yeah, I mean you rescued it right like, and it's 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:48.760 like a piece of my dad. It's like his energy, 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.680 his spirit is him. You know that was my dad 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.520 calling out to you. That's what that was. You're like, yeah, 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:03.080 let me go in the trash. My son lives not 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.840 too far away. Don't let me go in the trash. 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.000 Well, Bentley was able to trace the path that led 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:19.600 Frederick Brown's work to the metaphorical trash heap. I'm still 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.280 wondering about the literal trash heap, the one on a 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:26.720 Brooklyn sidewalk, and so, of course I'm still wondering about 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:31.119 Larry Simms. It turns out Bentley knows Lowry well. The 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.080 two are even writing a book together. When I ask 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.800 Bentley about Lowry's aversion to speaking with me, he alludes 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.200 to some bad experiences she's had with journalists, but he 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.000 reassures me that he'll put in a good word. And 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.080 the next morning, Bentley calls to tell me that Lowry 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:51.760 is willing to talk. There's just one caveat. She doesn't 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.240 want to discuss how the painting wound up in the garbage. 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:58.480 It's hard for me to figure out why. And I 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:00.480 don't really know how to do an interview about a 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:03.439 painting that ended up in the trash without asking how 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.280 the painting ended up in the trash. So I crossed 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:09.000 my fingers that something might shift. Once we're on the phone, 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.879 Larry takes my call from her condo in Baltimore. She 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:18.960 tells me that she met Frederick Brown when she was 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.880 around thirty, a newly minted curator at the Met. As 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.159 a curator, Lowry's mission was to champion the work of 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.680 overlooked artists. Lowry herself knew what it was like to 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:30.399 be overlooked. 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:32.840 I mean, I was in, you know, as this black 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.200 girl from Queens. I had a career nobody would have 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:40.720 expected at that time. I was in places where nobody 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:43.320 expected at the time. I mean I used to tell people. 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.200 One of the most amusing things for me was to 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:52.199 go to a collector on Park Avenue in the seventies 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:55.520 and get to the front door, and the doorman would 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.600 try to sort of scoop me around to the service 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.520 entrance because they assumed I was a housekeeper or something, 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:08.040 you know, and new I'm, you know, from the Metropolitan Museum. 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:12.280 You sort to see that the face change, you know, 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:13.600 they go, oh. 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:13.879 You know. 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:23.119 It was a struggle to get past the ignorance about 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:23.959 black artists. 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:27.760 Like once in the seventies Lowry organized an exhibit of 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:29.800 black art from the METS collection. 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:33.360 And when we got the exhibition up, I was approached 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:35.960 by a journalist and said, I didn't even know they. 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:36.800 Were black artists. 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.879 Now this is like nineteen seventy nine. Come on, jeez, 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:45.080 yeah yeah, yeah, so I said, where we've been around 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:46.480 since the late eighteen hundred. 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:51.879 Hearing this story, it starts to make sense why Lowry 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:54.560 might have been reluctant to speak with me, a white 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:58.160 looking journalist she's never met. In fact, when I spoke 0:24:58.200 --> 0:25:00.800 with Bentley, he said Lowry had wanted him to suss 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:03.159 me out, to make sure that I was okay, before 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.560 she agreed to talk to me. Like his dad, Bentley said, 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:16.040 Lowry too has had to be a fox. Larry and 0:25:16.119 --> 0:25:19.879 Brown's friendship endured for decades, starting in that Worcester Street 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.840 loft and lasting until Brown's death, and even after he died, 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.960 Larry continued to engage with Brown's work. Just last summer, 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:30.520 she helped put together a big posthumous show of his 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:34.520 art at the Barry Campbell Gallery in Manhattan. Like Bentley, 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:36.800 she wants Brown to finally get his due. 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:42.920 It's a regional work, you know, it's strong work. I'm 0:25:43.160 --> 0:25:47.359 just hopeful that, you know, Frederick gets written into the 0:25:47.840 --> 0:25:50.000 you know, the art lexicon in the way that he 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:50.720 needs to be. 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:55.119 When I ask Lowry why this hasn't happened yet, like Bentley, 0:25:55.480 --> 0:25:58.480 she cites the aftermath at the China trip, but she 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:00.359 also offers this, he. 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:02.680 Sort of left New York at a crucial period in 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:07.560 his career, and he put the concerns of his family first. 0:26:08.359 --> 0:26:11.520 And it's true. In the nineties, Brown left New York 0:26:11.600 --> 0:26:15.080 for a town called Carefree, Arizona. A big factor in 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:18.360 that decision was his daughter's asthma. Brown knew the dry 0:26:18.400 --> 0:26:21.240 desert heat would be good for her, and although money 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:24.000 was still tight, the family was happy out in Arizona. 0:26:24.720 --> 0:26:27.879 Bentley recalls his dad attending his flag football games in 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:31.480 his signature White Brooks Brothers suit, sweating in the Arizona 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:35.639 Son and dabbing his forehead with napkins. Well, some children 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:39.760 of famous artists remember locked studio doors. Bentley remembers his 0:26:39.880 --> 0:26:43.320 dad's welcoming studio couch, where he'd flopped down after school 0:26:43.440 --> 0:26:46.840 and talk about his day while his father painted. All 0:26:46.880 --> 0:26:49.720 of which is to say Bentley remembers Brown as a 0:26:49.760 --> 0:27:00.320 good dad. As Lowry and I talk, I do my 0:27:00.400 --> 0:27:02.800 best to avoid the whole painting and the trash thing. 0:27:03.480 --> 0:27:06.639 So we discussed her time at the met Brown's jazz portraits, 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:12.400 the similarities between Genesis one and two. But then, without prompting, 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:14.159 Lowry volunteers this. 0:27:14.720 --> 0:27:16.639 I mean, I sort of, like, you know, kind of 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:20.639 figured out that I probably gazed the painting to someone 0:27:20.720 --> 0:27:21.600 who admired it. 0:27:21.920 --> 0:27:22.040 You know. 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:25.440 I can't remember who because it you know, because it 0:27:25.560 --> 0:27:28.080 was certainly too big for my low apartment. 0:27:29.119 --> 0:27:32.320 As it turns out, Brown had painted Lowry Genesis two 0:27:32.440 --> 0:27:34.600 as a thank you gift because she had been the 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:38.280 curator who bought Genesis one for the Mets collection. But 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:41.440 the painting was huge, and Lowry ran into the problem 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:44.600 that so many New Yorkers do. Living in a cramped 0:27:44.640 --> 0:27:47.280 apartment on the Upper east Side, she just hadn't had 0:27:47.320 --> 0:27:50.880 space for it. For Lowry, there was no blank wall 0:27:50.920 --> 0:27:53.440 above the couch, just waiting for something to be hung. 0:27:54.280 --> 0:27:57.159 So instead she found Genesis two a good home with 0:27:57.240 --> 0:27:58.200 a friend who loved it. 0:27:58.720 --> 0:28:00.760 And I think I told Fred, you know, like about 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:04.119 six Yeah, how it ended up with, amya find it? 0:28:04.240 --> 0:28:07.920 I don't know. I just can't remember who I might 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:08.760 have given it to. 0:28:10.119 --> 0:28:12.800 I suspect that Lowry might be trying to protect a friend. 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:15.760 Maybe that's why she'd been reluctant to talk about the 0:28:15.800 --> 0:28:19.399 painting's loss. Maybe Larry gave the painting to someone who 0:28:19.520 --> 0:28:22.880 moved to a smaller apartment themselves, or maybe they died 0:28:23.000 --> 0:28:25.159 or fell on hard times and decided to sell it. 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:28.680 Maybe it was regifted to someone else, or sold in 0:28:28.760 --> 0:28:31.600 a state sale, or just lost in the general shuffle 0:28:31.640 --> 0:28:36.800 of life. No matter what, the end result is the same. Ultimately, 0:28:37.240 --> 0:28:40.800 someone looked at it thought this isn't worth keeping and 0:28:40.960 --> 0:28:44.640 threw it away. All of that, it seems, was wrapped 0:28:44.720 --> 0:28:48.760 up and Lowry's intriguing. Does it make you sad at 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:51.040 all to think of art just in the trash like that? 0:28:52.320 --> 0:28:57.040 Well, you know, there's a saying that ninety eight percent 0:28:57.280 --> 0:29:01.800 of all the art created in the world since the 0:29:01.920 --> 0:29:03.080 beginning is gone. 0:29:03.960 --> 0:29:06.880 Do you think like the best stuff somehow makes it through? 0:29:07.080 --> 0:29:07.680 Do you know what I mean? 0:29:09.000 --> 0:29:11.880 I think it's totally random. Yeah, I mean, I guess 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:14.719 that's why we have museums, you know, because they can 0:29:14.800 --> 0:29:18.120 be seen as places where these things can be safe. 0:29:18.240 --> 0:29:20.560 But I mean, just look, it was happening now in 0:29:20.600 --> 0:29:24.760 the Ukraine, you know, the Palming museums and cultural sites. 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:27.280 So I think a lot of times it's just the 0:29:27.440 --> 0:29:28.200 luck of the draw. 0:29:30.400 --> 0:29:41.800 Time is the most capricious of curators. A few weeks earlier, 0:29:42.000 --> 0:29:45.120 when Bentley came by Maya's apartment, we all sat around 0:29:45.240 --> 0:29:49.640 and talked for hours about art and family, and finally, 0:29:49.960 --> 0:29:52.640 when it was time to go, Maya turned to Bentley 0:29:52.680 --> 0:29:55.360 and said, I don't think the painting belongs with me. 0:29:56.240 --> 0:29:59.800 I think it belongs somewhere else. Bentley's taller than my 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:03.640 and had no problem lifting up the canvas. He thanked 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:06.840 Maya warmly and carried Genesis Too out the door to 0:30:06.920 --> 0:30:11.120 his car. He'd serve as the paintings caretaker until Lowry 0:30:11.240 --> 0:30:14.160 decided what she wanted to do. Can you tell me 0:30:14.240 --> 0:30:16.600 sort of like, what's happening to it now? Do you 0:30:16.720 --> 0:30:17.720 know where it's going? 0:30:18.640 --> 0:30:23.680 Yeah, it's been accepted by the Studio Museum as a donation. Oh, 0:30:23.760 --> 0:30:26.600 that's great, and the donation will be from me, from 0:30:26.640 --> 0:30:28.920 the estate of the artists, and from Maya. 0:30:34.080 --> 0:30:37.239 On a warm Friday afternoon, I pay Maya visit her 0:30:37.280 --> 0:30:38.479 regal apartment building. 0:30:41.280 --> 0:30:41.480 Hello. 0:30:42.760 --> 0:30:45.560 She and Wes are signing the paperwork to officially donate 0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:48.160 the painting to the Studio Museum, and I'm here to 0:30:48.200 --> 0:30:51.680 serve as a witness. Lowry and Bentley have both already signed. 0:30:56.920 --> 0:30:59.600 Knowing how much Maya loves the painting, I thought giving 0:30:59.640 --> 0:31:02.840 it up would be bittersweet, but she's in high spirits. 0:31:03.560 --> 0:31:05.960 She likes the idea of Genesis Too hanging in a 0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:09.920 museum that way, thousands of people will get to enjoy it. 0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:13.640 We'll lean towards the plaque and read the name Frederick J. Brown. 0:31:14.560 --> 0:31:16.440 Who knows what that name might mean to people in 0:31:16.480 --> 0:31:19.880 the future, if time will strengthen Brown's legacy or wash 0:31:19.920 --> 0:31:23.920 it away. But for now, we finish up the paperwork 0:31:24.160 --> 0:31:27.200 and all cheers a shot at tequila to celebrate, as 0:31:27.280 --> 0:31:28.120 friends often do. 0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:31.120 Thank you. 0:31:35.080 --> 0:31:37.440 On my way out, I noticed that the big wall 0:31:37.520 --> 0:31:39.800 above Maya's couch is still blank. 0:32:02.600 --> 0:32:08.400 Now that the furnitures returning to its goodwill. 0:32:08.040 --> 0:32:15.920 Home, Now that the last month's rent is scheming with. 0:32:16.160 --> 0:32:19.920 The damage to pos take this moment to do so. 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:28.320 If we mint it, if we travel felt around for 0:32:28.560 --> 0:32:39.960 far too from things good accidentally. This episode of Heavyweight 0:32:40.040 --> 0:32:43.400 was produced by me Khalila Holt along with Jonathan Goldstein. 0:32:43.840 --> 0:32:48.400 Our supervising producer is Stevie Lane. Production help from Domiano Marquetti, 0:32:48.920 --> 0:32:53.200 special thanks to Emily Condon, Alex Bloomberg, Lydia Polgreen, Mercy Flynn, 0:32:53.520 --> 0:32:57.560 Carl McCool, Caitlin Kenny, and Kayla Lattimore, with extra special 0:32:57.600 --> 0:33:00.880 thanks to Sam Riceman. Bobby Lord mixed the episode with 0:33:00.960 --> 0:33:04.640 original music by Christine Fellows. John K. Sampson, Michael Hurst, 0:33:04.840 --> 0:33:07.880 and Bobby Lord. Additional music credits can be found on 0:33:07.960 --> 0:33:11.960 our website, gimlipmedia dot com slash Heavyweight. Our theme song 0:33:12.080 --> 0:33:15.360 is by The Weaker Dance courtesy of Epitaph Records. Follow 0:33:15.440 --> 0:33:18.320 us on Twitter at Heavyweight or email us at Heavyweight 0:33:18.360 --> 0:33:21.800 at gimlipmedia dot com. We'll be back next week.