Frederick J. Brown

Frederick J. Brown (American, 1945-2012)

IN THE BEGINNING, 1971 | Oil on canvas | Private collection

Frederick J. Brown was a versatile artist, confident with figurative painting, abstraction, landscape, collage, and ceramics. The rich influences he experienced growing up on the South Side of Chicago included his uncle who repainted cars, his mother who decorated cakes, and his father's love of jazz. His early formal training included mentorship by the Dutch-American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning and exposure to German Expressionism. African and indigenous North American arts and cultures were just as influential.

In the Beginning is an example of Brown's early career paintings about outer space. Brown depicts the Milky Way as a spiral galaxy among billions of other galaxies. Brown pursued the theme in other paintings including Galaxy I (1971), Galaxy II (1971), Outer Space (1973), and Black Hole (1974). Painting stars, clouds, and interstellar dust allowed the artist to delve deeply into his love of color and the materiality of paint. Brown's exploration of space culminated in his 1977 collaboration with Chicago's Adler Planetarium on the painting titled Milky Way.

As seen in Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights To The Bicentennial on view at the Crocker Art Museum, February 4 - May19, 2024

Explore brilliant and powerful works from artists who celebrated racial identity, communicated with Black audiences, and participated in the struggle for equality in the 1960s. 

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