Ornette Coleman

Artist

Frederick J. Brown, 1945 - 2012

Sitter

Ornette Coleman, 9 Mar 1930 - 11 Jun 2015

Exhibition Label

Born Fort Worth, Texas

For both his musical virtuosity on alto saxophone and his compositions, Ornette Coleman is one of the major forces in American music in the late twentieth century. Like painter Jackson Pollock and writer Walt Whitman, who rejected traditional forms as too constrictive for human expression, Coleman broke with existing jazz diction, creating a raw sound that seemed to deliberately avoid the musical scale in favor of "playing in the cracks." In 1959, Coleman's quartet produced The Shape of Jazz to Come, a musical manifesto that was the aural equivalent of Pollock's abstract expressionism. Coleman disavowed the idea that "free jazz," as his music was called, was pure improvisation, maintaining that careful planning went into each composition. In the 1970s Coleman moved into jazz funk, using electrified instruments. He is still a prolific musician, and his album Sound Grammar won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007.

Provenance

The artist [1992]; purchased through donor gift NPG 2006

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Joel and Sherry Mallin and Sebastienne and Bentley Brown

1992

Object number

NPG.2006.112

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© 1992, Frederick J. Brown

Type

Painting

Medium

Oil and charcoal on linen

Dimensions

Stretcher: 121.9 x 101.6cm (48 x 40")

Frame: 124.5 x 105.4 x 7cm (49 x 41 1/2 x 2 3/4")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Ornette Coleman: Male

Ornette Coleman: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Composer

Ornette Coleman: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Horn\Saxophonist

Ornette Coleman: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Jazz

Ornette Coleman: Pulitzer Prize

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2006.112

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm475625726-f937-420b-b41e-85b9d0f03df0