EVENT DETAILS

Bridget Cooks' "Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California" at the Pasadena Museum of California Art

We hope you can join us for the first FOAH event of the year, a talk and tour with Bridget R. Cooks and Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins on Saturday, October 6th at 2 pm at the Pasadena Museum of California Art on Grafton Tyler Brown, renowned 19th century artist and entrepreneur. There is a special poignancy to this event, because the museum will be permanently closing its doors the next day, Sunday October 7th.

We hope you are able to join us!

P.S. I’m finishing up the 18-19 FOAH calendar; please look for it sometime next week and the new FOAH magazine soon thereafter.

Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) was a painter, graphic designer, and lithographer in the 19th century. A talented artist and entrepreneur, Brown was the only documented African American in his field in the western United States at the time.

Exact details on how Brown first encountered lithography are unknown. However, it’s possible that he discovered lithography as a teenager by working in Peter S. Duval’s print shop in Philadelphia. Duval employed lithographer, Charles Conrad Kuchel who moved to California in 1853. In 1865, Brown founded his first lithography business in San Francisco, where he served the emerging business communities in the area, designing stock certificates for a wide variety of companies ranging from ice to mining corporations, as well as admission tickets, maps, sheet music, advertisements, and billheads.

Later in life, Brown began to make his living as a painter, selling original oil landscape paintings as he traveled further north. While his depictions of the West were well received, the vast majority of Brown’s artistic output is in the medium of lithography. These commercial works were instrumental in creating images of new cities, businesses, and land prospects in the West. His artistic skill and creative efforts can be credited with successfully promoting Western expansion and development. This is an important story rarely told and not widely known.

Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California will include approximately 45 paintings, prints, and objects from Brown’s oeuvre, including a breadth of imagery detailing the early development of California and the West.

Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California is organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art and curated by Bridget R. Cooks Ph.D.. The exhibition is supported by the PMCA Board of Directors, PMCA Ambassador Circle, and the California Visionary Fund.