Chapman Kelley's Memoirs - Chapter 11

     In the early 1970s I was a delegate at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations or UNESCO, 16th Conference on the Environment, held in Houston, Texas.  The experience caused me to be more aware and empathetic about world-wide problems.

     In March of 1976 at my Saturday art critique I challenged attendees with the proposition, "What would you do if you were able to do anything in the world?"  After each student had been called on they turned the question back to me. By this time I was used to the conscious use of intuition that I had learned from author, inventor and futurist R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller at the University of Illinois symposium called "Matrix for the Arts," in 1967 where I was a participant.  The result of this learning had already brought me opportunities such as creating the Dallas-based art school the Northwood Institute, the Free University at Lee Park and the training of high school students in the arts as part of Mayor John Erik Jonsson's "Goals for Dallas" initiative.  Once in a while I'd have the opportunity to share the following experience with others in my studio. I'd tell them how I had been travelling with my clients in their private planes.  I suddenly realized that I could transpose both figuratively and metaphorically the flat concrete roads and runways of the new Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport with the nonfigurative elements of my paintings. The airport's general oval drainage areas among the runways were bordered with black top asphalt which mirrored the bands around the ellipses in my work; the only thing remaining was to install actual wildflowers in place of painted ones.  Because of my close association with Françoise Gilot, Dr. Jonas Salk and Fuller's tutelage I realized the environmental benefits of cultivating wildflowers to an exacting new level, coupled with gaining the public's approval of a new aesthetic and replace the still-current preference for residential and commercial water-guzzling green lawns, that we should no longer tolerate because of the worldwide water crisis.

     If wildflower cultivation and research could be pursued as I indicated, I predicted that unrealized food, fuel, fiber and medicines would be found which could allow for the easy development of the common uses of native plants in landscaping resulting in a marriage of the arts and sciences benefiting and bringing together humankind and nature in a vibrant working relationship. Everyone was rather flabbergasted at the possibilities of my D/FW Airport Wildflower Works.  There was an immediate demand that I pursue the concept because with the support of those present, between 20 and 30 people, the idea might be discussed and either ignored, suppressed or misused by others.

     So I went to Dallas acting mayor Adeline Harrison and she sent me to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport board to share the idea.  I offered to pay the entire cost of the wildflower seeds, which I did.  The airport board assigned to me the airport's central area—four miles with 300 feet between the roadways.  Johnny Pate was in charge of helping develop the seeding and entirely responsible for the upkeep. An offshoot idea was to harvest the seeds from the seed heads the following season and to sell them to anyone interested.  The income generated from selling the seeds, tote bags and tee shirts, etc. to commission new works of art by other artists in a beautification effort for the Dallas/FW Airport.  This was all previously documented and agreed upon between the airport board of directors and myself. 

     The concept and effort gained immediate attention and garnered publicity around the U.S.  Subsequently, many lectures and honors came my way.  Airport officials were shy about the premature media fanfare and wanted to wait until the following spring blossoming.  Several tons of lupinus texensis, known as the Texas' state flower the bluebonnet, would by then have been sowed along with several hundred pounds of phlox drummondii, otherwise known as red flax, scarlet flax and crimson flax.

     To make my vision for the airport's wildflowers tangible, through the winter I painted watercolors madly—85 of them in 125 days!  They were related to my earlier works as wells as the Dallas/Ft. Worth Wildflower Works.  Historian Sam Blain and my assistant Candice Land began creating a catalog announcing this new dimension in the arts. The widely-considered great American collectors of art, Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn, who already owned my work and had gifted a diptych painting to President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird, allowed a comment to be published in the catalog. 

     On April 22, 1977 Joan and I were Lady Bird's house guests.  I was Lady Bird's dinner partner at a large event honoring biographer Robert Caro and his wife Ina. He took on the responsibility of writing four books about Lyndon B. Johnson. Caro has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

     I had taken some of the watercolors and discussed the Dallas/Ft.Worth Wildflower Works concept with Lady Bird, Mr. and Mrs. Preston Jones, he a famous Texas playwright and Fleur Cowles the morning of the 23rd.  (Two decades later the October 1996 issue of Vanity Fair had this to say about Cowles, "...legendary American expatriate, editor, writer, painter, hostess, and philanthropist, is publishing her memoir and "The Best of Flair," an opulent anthology of the dazzling, short-lived magazine that galvanized the literati in the early 1950s.") Lady Bird had encouraged the Texas Highway Department to use wildflowers on its highways; they had done so since 1929 after a superintendent realized the beauty and reduced mowing costs.  However, Lady Bird said that to her knowledge no one had ever been able to deliberately cultivate them and unless our team succeeded it was just an empty dream. 

     In the spring some early mowing took place.  Those plants that had been seeded and that were not destroyed by the early mowing began to make an excellent beginning.  The art world and news media had a field day reporting on the blooms.  The resulting exhibition of my related watercolors was a huge success.  I was invited to give presentations, which I did, such as for the Transportation Research Board (national) at two venues, San Antonio, Texas and Orono, Maine.  Art News published a nice story on my new medium.  In 1979 the Texas Highway Department hired range scientist Dr. Thomas Jefferson Allen to set up the department to develop better more dependable plantings along many more highways in Texas. As a result of this I began to be a "regular" at the LBJ Ranch. You will recall that in the early 1970s I was President Lyndon B. Johnson's last visitor when I delivered the diptych painting and unexpectedly spent the entire day, one on one, spontaneously discussing his legacy; 36 hours later he was dead.  I made a series of what were to be the final photos of a living LBJ.

     I met Dr. Allen at a symposium attended by many people who worked out of offices in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.  From that day on Dr. Allen and I were joined in mutual effort like Siamese twins; we were this way until his death.  His professionalism as a range scientist and his impeccable integrity were the key aspects to our success.

     Of course I was doing test plantings at my gallery on Fairmount St. and at my homes in Highland Park and Turtle Creek.  Unfortunately for us, Johnny Pate and his boss at the D/FW Airport abandoned ship.  The replacement boss was a retired military officer.  He wanted the airport grounds clipped close like the haircut of a new military recruit.  Thus the D/FW Wildflower Works petered out without explanation.

     I don't expect that we will ever gain any hard evidence that the Dallas Museum of Fine Art's (since renamed Dallas Museum of Art) blacklist had anything to do with the D/FW Wildflower Works demise. However, the occurrences of the museum's and others' efforts to negatively affect the careers of several Dallas artists will be forthcoming in this memoir. 

     The good that came from this experience with the D/FW Wildflower Works is that we proved that cultivation was possible.   One mistake (we learn from these too) was not to have the outside general maintenance component under my control.  Another misstep was to expect expensive aerial photography to convey the color density and saturation after only one year of a growth cycle; Life Magazine staff had expressed a keen interest in such images.  Another error was not accepting the beautiful Lorraine Haacke, art critic with the Dallas Times Herald, to do a Wildflower Works cover story for Braniff International Airways' in-flight magazine.  Finally, not understanding how complex the planning and development of outside grounds maintenance would be was a setback; it happened before I met Dr. Allen in 1979.
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Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport Wildflower Works and Braniff International Airlines passenger jet

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    In April of 1980 I was approached by Walt Davis curator at the Dallas Museum of Natural History and later by its director Lou Gore about having a retrospective exhibit of my paintings at the museum.  They also expressed a keen interest in my installing a Wildflower Works which would surround that museum building.  Walt had become familiar with my work after visiting my gallery in 1979.  I shared the proposal with Dr. Allen and when he volunteered his guidance we accepted the offer.  At some point during all of this Dr. Allen suffered a heart attack.  Amazingly, he was subsequently able to be a full partner in the choice of plant materials and related matters for the creation of the DMNH/Wildflower Works.

     Walt told me that the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, literally next door, would have to be purposely misled by outdoor signage during the autumn and winter announcing the event.  The bogus signage was necessary because we knew that the DMFA was determined to stop me and any other Dallas painter or sculptor from having any important recognition—such as what I once had in Dallas—that could be garnered independent of the DMFA.  In fact, this Wildflower Works exhibition and the related artist recognition by the public was why the DMNH would be able to gain free beneficial publicity and foot traffic that natural history museums rarely received; such publicity was the norm for art museums.  The museum staff knew that if the DMFA had learned of the show beforehand they would have somehow interfered because it was no secret that the DMFA had lots more clout with city and landlord park district officials. 

     We plunged into making an ambitious catalog and series of lithographs relating to the show.  Botanist David Block regularly inspected the progress of our plantings even through the winter.  I was disappointed that the DMHN did not contribute anything to the catalog.  It would not even accept my cousin Eula Nelms (Mrs. Horace) $10,000 contribution.  She intended on taking a federal income tax deduction for her donation.  I considered the DMNH's refusal to accept the donation to be a very bad sign!  However, I believe that the museum did contribute something to the grand dinner opening party which was catered by my chef son Cole and his wife Lisa.  Blossom and Brad Horton were also an integral part of the culinary team.  The event was a great success.

     The exhibition and DMNH/Wildflower Works installation succeeded as planned.  Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn came to see the show.  Kenny and John Pickens hosted a dinner party for out-of-town guests which included folks from both U.S. coasts.  Susan Horton hosted a Sunday brunch for visitors in a setting that surrounded everyone with her extensive collection of my work.

     The DMNH and its staff had not had such a high level of attention before; as a result they extended the exhibit and Wildflower Works through the next year.   I was honored when they asked me to plan a traveling exhibit with them.  On weekends bus loads of school age children came for tours.  Some of them sent back color drawings in testament to the tours I had conducted.  News of the exhibit naturally spilled into the museum's surrounding residential area.  The young neighborhood children became our docents.  Each was given an official Wildflower Works ribbon to wear.  I don't know if the children adopted us but we had wonderful times and enjoyed enhanced community relations with the neighborhood.  The museum was affiliated with a local high school club.  The club installed a bee hive in a museum window and did interesting experiments.  However, their test plots, for which we had furnished seeds, weren't consistently tended and yielded less than satisfactory results.
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Volunteers/docents and botanist wearing official Dallas Museum of Natural Histroy Wildflower Works ribbons circa 1980

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     Walt Davis and Lou Gore were invited to give a presentation about the museum's participation in the Wildflower Works at the annual American Association of Museums convention in Philadelphia PA.  For that event I donated 450 DMNH/Wildflower Works catalogs that were snapped up by collectors/attendees even before Gore arrived!  Their talk drew a standing room only audience and as a result they were asked to repeat the presentation.  Obviously flattered by the request, they gladly did so. 

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Gounds of the Dallas Museum of Natural History - Wildflower Works

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     DMFA museum director Harry Parker must have crawled back to Dallas under the bellies of snakes from the embarrassment of having a natural history museum next door have such a big hit exhibition by a local Dallas painter, yours truly, and unfortunately for the Dallas art scene, the target of a DMFA blacklist.  This is where the trouble began; remember, in the power center that is downtown Dallas, the DMFA clearly had much more clout than the DMNH.

     I had a scale model made for a "portable" room and exhibition for the proposed traveling exhibit.  I brought along the model when Walt Davis took me to visit the director of the Hoblitzelle Foundation. Established by Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle in 1942 the foundation makes grants to social service, educational, medical, and other organizations in Texas, especially in the Dallas area. The purpose of our visit was to explore funding for my traveling exhibit.  The Hoblitzelle director's son, who happened to be a pilot at the D/FW Airport, said that his fellow pilots created an informal lottery to pick the day the airport's wildflowers would blossom.

      The DMNH was given an exceptionally long time frame to submit its application for a grant.  The Hoblitzelle director personally held open the deadline to file, he did so several times.  I realized that in all likelihood the DMFA had intervened and killed the prospect.  Sometime around 5:30 p.m. I phoned the mayor about it; he was an executive of Tom Thumb food stores.  We arranged to have breakfast the following morning.  Since the mayor knew that I headed the campaign to preserve Oak Lawn and particularly the community where my gallery on Fairmount St. was located, (currently the prosperous Uptown area) he thought our meeting was about a neighborhood preservation issue.  When I explained how the DMNH had inexplicably balked and missed some application filing deadlines and my suspicion about the DMFA's intervention, he put the director of the park board in touch with me.  The park board was the landlord of the parcels used by the DMFA and DMNH.  The director's first report was that the DMNH would submit the grant proposal immediately.  He promised that if it didn't happen then he would personally provide it.  Eventually nothing was ever done.  You will hear more of this gentleman, who was also on the National Wildflower Works Center executive committee and about how he was sentenced to a prison term for unlawful behavior in a public park men’s room.  The incident was reported by the Dallas newspapers.

 

     By now Robert Caro's first book on President Lyndon B. Johnson had been published.  As a direct result of LBJ's "insider" connections forged from a career in state and national politics, Caro pointed out in his book that although LBJ was a most capable politician, LBJ had conducted personal business transactions that caused more than a few eyebrows to be raised.  Choosing to increase the U.S. involvement in Vietnam War overshadowed LBJ being remembered as being among the greatest of U.S. presidents based on the congressional enactment of his domestic policies. LBJ's political career was flawed only because of his decision to escalate the Vietnam War.  The legacy of subsequent American presidents is similarly tarnished for not heeding President Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex.  To offset Caro's sometimes negative content about her husband's personal profit-making deals, Lady Bird sought to create some upbeat publicity hoping to diffuse that unflattering material made public by Caro.  And can you guess what Lady Bird chose to do?  She had her best friend Patsy Steves of San Antonio, TX ask yours truly to approve and participate in a newly created organization, the National Wildflower Research Center, which was to conduct the necessary research to fully develop the public use of the technical vegetative management system that would result from my Wildflower Works!  However, it was foolish of me to agree to participate.  I should have known how politics can be played whereby people exploit minds and divert funds for their own benefit.  It would have been so much the better for me to have politely declined Lady Bird's offer and instead develop a Wildflower Works entirely on my own. I would have long ago published the findings and recouped my initial monetary investment.

     In 1979 I had another successful exhibit at my atelier. National recognition flowed for the Wildflower Works concept.  If I may say so, my beautifully redone gallery received lots of compliments as did the Lambert house which had a lawn of wildflowers on Turtle Creek Boulevard.  My lawn at the gallery prospered--wildflowers were present spring summer and fall with a lawn full of bluebonnets in green rosette stage through winter.  Unlike my work, I learned that there were a number of professional and amateur self-styled experts who had "nothing to show" regarding their project's sequential blooming across three seasons of the year.

     I was travelling about to learn whatever possible about cultivating wildflowers.  I gladly presented lots of slide shows at no cost to attendees.  However, I sensed that there seemed to be an unlikely possibility for another "Dallas" Wildflower Works.  At this juncture I was further convinced that I had become a target of a Dallas Museum of Fine Art blacklist and because I was such an integral part of the Dallas art scene, the blacklist doomed the future of that, too.

     It was very gratifying to have both the respect and support of so many here in Dallas who could see the importance of the work of art in the community, the world at large as well as the water conservation aspect of the concept.  However, the efforts by the DMFA to enforce their censorship of all artists in the community through fear demonstrated their reckless cruelty as well as their historic foolhardiness.

    In this case the eagerness of the DMNH to enhance its reputation through sharing the related publicity generated by this traveling Wildflower Works exhibition was soon brought to a halt.  The project was likely stymied by the more powerful DMFA.  The result was that the Wildflower Works was destroyed by being cut back against a specific written agreement and the funding of the traveling exhibit of my work never materialized.

      As you may know, a blacklist is insidious and obviously unjust.  It is illegal punishment for independent souls who believe that we have in fact the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.  Blacklisting is conveyed through innuendo, libel and a negative "whispering campaign" in order to frighten others.  It hopes to deprive its targets of their right to freedom of expression.  It seeks to dominate a community of people and have them accept the will of those with power.  It strives to make the warning, "YOU MAY BE NEXT!" a cornerstone of its effort.

     The other disastrous effect of the blacklisting was that my financial portfolio at the First National Bank in Dallas was purposefully misplaced.  How could this possibly happen while the bank proudly displayed so much of my work and for such a long time?  For example, my "Nine Poplars" painting hung on the most conspicuous bank wall in Dallas.  It was hung under a skylight in the bank officers’ formal reception area surrounded by private dining rooms where VIP clients were made to feel pampered and comfortable.  Only well-heeled clients visited the bank's ninth floor where bank officer's suites were located; that's where my paintings were in the offices of the chairman of board and top tier vice-presidents. R. H. Stewart III, who headed First National Bank in Dallas since 1959, and his wife Cynthia, who was my pal, art student and tennis partner had been among my most ardent supporters since I arrived in Dallas in the 1950s.  Their home was full of my paintings.  Their daughter, like others such as Mary McDermott, was sent to counsel with me.  Being perceived as a serious painter signaled a caring and idealistic human who young people of that age, those of the 1960s, could trust.  If I may say so, such personal characteristics were confirmed by the larger society and well demonstrated by my pivotal role in the creation of the highly popular Free University at Lee Park in Dallas.  

     The public example made by the blacklisting of this leading painter, art dealer, art teacher and fortunate art collector was that I went from having my own bank officer chosen and assigned personally by R.H. Stewart III to handle my financial consultations and portfolio, to subsequently being relegated to visiting an under-the-street pedway booth for my banking needs.  The "underground" banking person had no real authority and was not even aware of my bank account or that it had been "demoted" and reassigned.

     In pursuing the by now widely-acclaimed Wildflower Works concept, of course my expenses grew exponentially.  To continue, the only option I had was to sell the most valuable objects of my personal collection such as original works by Alexander Calder, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Henry Moore, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.  I sold them for far less than their worth and risked the viability of my real estate holdings.  The benefactors of these sales were some of my best clients, resulting in disastrous consequences for me.  Soon I was forced with the double dealings of supposedly respectable clients and friends but also the efforts of others who wished to actually claim credit for the Wildflower Works concept. 

    It is ironic that Austin, Texas storyteller and radio show host John Henry Faulk (who became my friend via Dallas arts patron and promoter Bonnie Leslie) and famous playwright James Maxwell Anderson were also blacklisted in the 1950s. The blacklisted Anderson is the grandfather of our new art museum director and well-documented champion of museum reform, Maxwell L. Anderson.  Faulk with his attorney Louis Nizer beat the architect of that blacklist campaign against him, U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy and his backers, in a federal court libel lawsuit.  A jury awarded to Faulk three times in damages beyond the amount he had requested. As a result Faulk went on to become a famous First Amendment lecturer and wrote a book about his blacklisting experience called "Fear on Trial."  The book was adapted for CBS television.  Ironically, CBS had ended Faulk's broadcasting career in the mid 1950s after bowing to pressure from blacklisters.  You will learn more in a near future memoir chapter about my 1980s First Amendment "victory" lawsuit after my noncommissioned “Chicago Wildflower Works” (1984 - 2004) artwork was threatened by folks affiliated with the Chicago Park District. 
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1979 note from John Henry Faulk to Kelley and associates

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     With this cast of characters, blacklisting information and historical background we'll see how all this plays out. 

     And given the area's water shortage issues, it will be interesting to see what future generations will have to say about Dallas' neglecting to take advantage of the vast water savings that the Wildflower Works proved was possible; it was a new aesthetic landscape made acceptable to the general public and one waiting to replace a current watering regimen which is no longer affordable.

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     These memoirs are a work in progress. Please submit information you may have to refresh my memory.  

Note:  With the exception of the newspaper images, all of the above is copyrighted material, all rights reserved.  Permission for use will be considered upon written request.  Blog comments are encouraged, the use of actual full names is strongly recommended, as are affiliations with organizations.
 

Chapman Kelley's Memoirs - Chapter 10

The Tragic Life of Frank A. Jones—a great artist

           After I was imported from San Antonio, Texas to Dallas in 1957, I made paintings, exhibited work, traveled, taught art and opened Atelier Chapman Kelley (ACK).  In 1959 I expanded my atelier by adding an art gallery and frame shop.  The expansion included having the sculptor Heri Bert Bartsch teach a class in what he knew best.  Then in 1960 I won first prize at the Twenty-Second Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition.  The Texas Annual was the kingmaker of artists and was sponsored by major Texas art museums, including the Dallas Museum of Art.  ACK’s future needed a business manager.  My first choice was a fine sculptor, H.J. "Harvey" Bott.  Harvey lived with his wife Margaret on The Strand in Galveston, TX.  It is now a National Historic Landmark District, an area of mainly Victorian era buildings.  Harvey graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, TX, a year after I did and played in the school band with my sister Pat. The Botts went to New York City with us, the site of my first exhibit.  The role of business manager didn't suit Harvey and obviously I didn’t need a gallery director.          For a while Perry Nichols’ son Christopher worked as ACK's business manager.  Before my 1964 New York exhibit Murray Smither asked me if he might have the job.  At the time of his request he worked at Texas Instruments putting to use the journalism education background he studied at Sam Houston State Teachers College, (now known as Sam Houston State University) located in Huntsville, TX, his hometown.  I suppose a prerequisite high security clearance for his job at Texas Instruments had something to do with his wanting to leave TI.  Even though he had attended some of my art classes, he didn't seriously pursue making art.

     As business manager Smither accompanied some of his art teachers from Sam Houston State Teachers College to where the teachers juried the first prisoner art exhibit at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, TX.  He returned with several prisoners' work from the show and he told me that he thought they were "cute."  When I saw them I said that one small blue and red pencil drawing by Frank A Jones was far more than cute.  I instructed Smither to return to the prison to ask Jones, of course with prison officials' acknowledgement, if I, as Atelier Chapman Kelley, could be the exclusive representative of all of his work.  And to inform Jones that ACK would supply him with better and larger paper and color pencils of a wider color variety.  Smither did as I asked.  As a result, I had Smither take several of Frank's works to New York where he showed them to his friend Paul Rogers Harris.  Harris for a short while had a job at the Museum of Modern Art.  However, the museum didn't buy any of Frank's pieces.  Even though Frank had talked of his earlier drawings, those prior to 1964, none have surfaced.  We introduced Frank's work to the rest of the U.S. by submitting it to juried museum exhibits. Thus Frank began to be accepted as a fine contemporary artist.  For example, Jones and Nathan Oliveira split the top prize at the Weatherspoon Gallery's (Museum) Art on Paper exhibit.  Frank was invited to make a personal appearance at the University of North Carolina to receive his prize.  Regrettably for all involved, we reported to Weatherspoon staff that the prison warden would not make an exception and allow Frank to venture outside.

     Frank was born sometime around 1900.  He was biracial; his parents were Native American and African.  He was a functional illiterate.  Given the Southwest's historical climate, coupled with Frank's mixed blood lineage and lack of formal education, he was misperceived--by the larger predominantly white Texas society--as a misfit and therefore suspect.  At the facility where Frank was held, prison officials like Tony Schindler (his supervisor) made it known that he thought Frank was innocent and had become the town scapegoat--Schindler and others thought Jones had been, pardon the cliché, "sent up the river" for others' crimes.

Frank A. Jones ca. 1968

      Texas state senator John Field and his wife Beverly, the local top interior decorator (and a great beauty) were friends of mine.  They took a great liking to Frank's work and Beverly even began to collect it.  John started a campaign to have Frank pardoned by Governor John Connally.  Unfortunately, Field died of a heart attack and with it the hope and prospect of gaining a pardon for Frank were dashed.


     Frank's last and final will provided for the proceeds of his estate to establish a fund for scholarships for high school art students of his hometown, Clarksville, TX.  This was what he wished despite the perception that Clarksville officials were suspected of using Frank as a town scapegoat and had victimized him.  Had Franks' desire reached fruition, it would have been a wonderful end for his legacy.  However, it was not to happen.  For example, a very promising Clarksville art student scholarship candidate surfaced.  I and others submitted a recommendation to The Honorable Judge Amos A. Gates (county probate court) for the candidate to receive a scholarship.  We received no reply.  My then-attorney, David A. Newsom of the law firm Green, Gilmore, Crutcher, Rothpletz & Burke sent a check to Judge Gates for the purchase of the Frank Jones estate in the amount that Frank would have directly received for each drawing.  The judge informed us that Smither had been named executor of Frank's estate and that we had to deal directly with him.  Instead, Smither got back to us demanding a larger price relating to full retail value of Jones' work plus other monies amounting to what I considered to be an extortionate amount of cash.  Undeterred by the high money request, in 1973 I purchased the Estate of Frank A. Jones.


    In prison Frank had gone for many years without a penny for a piece of candy or a stick of chewing gum.  No visitors came to see him during the same period. Even though ACK sold his work for only $10 to $50 each, from those earnings Frank was able to purchase expensive Benson & Hedges cigarettes.  He became the proud owner of the largest gold watch in the entire prison.  His bank account grew to have over $1,000.  Interviews with outside media followed, commensurate with his growing artistic fame.


     Huntsville prison inmates were periodically given parole hearings.  By 1968 Smither was aware that Frank was to be released from prison.  An arrangement had been made to release Frank with some jobs lined up for him on the outside to insure that he had a steady income.  When I asked Smither what could be done to help Frank obtain a parole, he reported to me that the prison psychiatrist didn't feel that Frank could survive in the outside world.  He further stated that with all the new attention showered on Frank that he was content with the only home he had known for many years--Huntsville State Prison.  However, in 1968 I was listening to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. funeral on the radio while driving to Dallas from Houston and I stopped in Huntsville for a visit with Frank.  As I prepared to leave I asked him if there was anything I could do or get for him.  His reply was, "Yes, get me out of here."  I was startled because this wasn't at all what Smither had conveyed to me.  Smither was well aware that he was being paid to keep Frank happy with art supplies and to find a way to get him out of prison.  When I returned to Dallas I reemphasized to him that he was to do everything possible to seek Frank's release.


    After 1970, in the wake of Smither no longer being an employee of ACK, my new employees went through all of the atelier correspondence files.  Despite representing himself as such, Smither was a business manager and never a director at Atelier Chapman Kelley.  The staff found a number of complaints from the Huntsville prison staff, even from Frank Jones himself, about his neglecting to tend to Frank's artistic and well-being needs.  We found a copy of a letter Smither wrote on December 27, 1966 to Huntsville prison officials.  To our astonishment the letter intimates that Smither meant to keep Frank in prison, essentially betraying him.  After Smither's severance from Atelier Chapman Kelley, we found a stack of Jones' work, completely and inexplicably out of place, squirreled away in the storage building behind my gallery.   In addition, several times the gallery and studio had previously been unlawfully broken into; the three perpetrators were professional thieves.  They were willing to go to prison rather than confess the identity of who had sent them and refused to name the targeted objects of the burglary.  In the 1980s Smither took Bud Drake and his wife into the storage building to retrieve several of Bud’s sculptures. 


     In the winter of 1969 we received a telephone call from the prison on the day before Smither was to physically meet with Frank immediately upon checking out.  As Frank feared, he never made it out; he died while incarcerated.  I held his work off the market for about a decade until an important travelling exhibit of Frank's work was held at the Mulvane Art Center, Topeka, Kansas, which was organized by Jim Hunt.  Jones work is referenced in a book on folk art authored by art collector and curator Herbert Hemphill. Hemphill was one of the founders of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. He and the museum have purchased Jones' work.


     The renaissance of American art during the 1950s and 1960s had lost its steam and some smart dealers gave folk artists the new name of "outsiders."  A very important new movement was born.  Because Frank fit this image (not unlike French Post-Impressionist painter Rousseau) his work soon was in demand; we accepted exhibits for him which were held in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York.  Frank quickly became a star in this new category.

      Later I was approached by William "Bill" Steen who wanted to curate an exhibition and publication of Frank's work.  It would take place in Houston, TX at The Menil Collection.  The Menil Collection has Jones' work.

     More recently in my return to Dallas in 2006, having been in Chicago since 1983, I learned that Smither has been very busy dealing in the resale of Jones’ work, much to the sorrow of some original owners.  Much to my surprise, he co-curated a Southern Methodist University exhibit of Jones' work.  Since I'm the owner of the Estate of Frank A. Jones, it seems bizarre for him to be intimately involved in a solo exhibit of Frank's work without SMU ever reaching out and using me as a professional resource. There have been stories floating around since the 1960s that some of Frank's fellow inmates, as art students, quite expectantly imitated his work, "fakes," each with the hope of gaining sales and becoming famous.  "New" items alleged to be Jones' work have shown up without the iron clad provenance that begins with Atelier Chapman Kelley.  I am the only one in the position to authenticate his work and have always been the exclusive dealer of Franks' work.  Many dark possibilities loom on the horizon waiting to be solved. 

     Decades ago University of Texas at Austin art history student Lynne Adele approached me about her research, a master's degree thesis on Frank.  In it she mentioned that her husband was incarcerated at Huntsville during the same time as Frank Jones.  I allowed Adele to study all of my records pertaining to Jones and when I was furnished a copy of her thesis, I asked her why she had not included Smither's betrayal of Frank in it.  She had no answer.

     Confusing the situation even more is that reference to Adele's work about Jones continues to be regurgitated on the Internet while omitting not only the true history but also leaving out any reference to Frank's sole estate representative, yours truly.   For an art historian to continue to ignore the Smither correspondence as disgraceful factual history brings into doubt both her integrity and that of the university museum she represents.  An art historian has a responsibility to tell the truth, and the whole truth so that bogus or stolen work will not confuse and ill serve future generations.

    Very recently we learned that it appears Murray Smither has still not paid out the proceeds, generated by the 1973 sale of Jones' remaining drawings, to the Clarksville Independent School District.  It was cash that was to solely benefit Clarksville high school district art students. 

     Much of this and more can be gleaned from the Houston Post newspaper (now defunct) art critic Susan Chadwick's lengthy articles about the matter.  In her April 23, 1990 article titled 20 years later, Jones’ scholarship find still not established, she wrote, “But the drawings were to be sold, according to his (Jones) will.  And the proceeds were to be used (by Smither) to establish a Frank Albert Jones scholarship fund.” …And the $5,000.00 received in 1973 for the drawings in the estate is not accounted for.”  Former Dallas resident James Surls, was quoted. “Frank Jones had an enormous impact on me,” said renowned Texas sculptor James Surls,” Chadwick wrote.  She penned another article about Jones just two months later in June of 1990.  Chadwick was contacted earlier this year at her home in France and she was thrilled to learn that the unfinished business of the funding issue was being discussed anew.  She mentioned that she still has the notes used to write the newspaper articles.  Actually, Ms. Pam Bryant, Superintendent of the Clarksville Independent School District was also recently contacted and remarked that as far as she knew, for an "indeterminate" number of years a check for $200.00 had been received.  Susan Chadwick in her article wrote that the checks have been “financed by an anonymous donor.” I get the strong impression that the lion's share of the proceeds has not been forwarded to school Superintendant Pam Bryant by Smither.  Had the $5,000.00 been deposited into a bank account by the Clarksville school district beginning in 1973, the time the estate was liquidated, the interest and principal would have by now easily grown to over $100,000.00!  And that's using a very conservative commercial loan interest rate pegged to the annually adjusted Federal Reserve prime interest rate.  So does Smither owe the Clarksville Independent School District somewhere well over $100 grand?  I am no legal scholar, but it seems to me that a Frank A. Jones fully executed last and final will is black letter law, is not subject to a statute of limitations and is binding and enforceable even to this very day. 

     Wouldn't it have been a much happier legacy for Frank to have been released in 1967 and to have lived to a ripe old age visiting with serious art students?  I had envisioned that scenario while teaching at Northwood.  His is an example of a great artist making marvelous works despite being illiterate and having had a late start creating work at age 64.  And then crowning the legacy by leaving a much larger estate of his work selling at today's value and becoming available to high school art students via scholarships tied to Frank's hometown--Clarksville!

    I would argue that Frank Albert Jones’ artist, moral and legal rights have been violated in this morbid case.  But for a lack of others' professionalism, honesty and human decency, Frank's life's end should have been as happy as his "haints" as he called them, once captured and tamed in his wonderful works. As a well trained, successful, experienced professional, as a painter, art dealer, art teacher and art collector, including being the dealer and collector of Frank's work, I am most familiar with his work; I have quite a different history and work interpretation of the real significance within his work.  I would not question the historic facts of his life but it has always seemed to me that the restraining of the vast majority of his "haints" indicate that he had overcome or exorcised them and they were as he, helplessly confined and thus comfortable to live with.

     

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Due to an original bad copy, the text of the above correspondence is mostly illegible, for your convenience a trascription is included: "I'm writing you in regard to my parole. which was to come up this month. I discussed a two (2) year put-off August 17, 1968. If it is possible I would like to talk with you to see if something might be done.  Mr. Smither, concerning my pictures. Would it be possible for you to send a little money.  I am in need of a few things from the commissary.  I also need a box of red pencils.  If you still want me to draw for you, let me know when you come.  Thank you very much for your time and assistance. Sincerely, Frank Jones." (Uncertain letter date.)

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          These memoirs are a work in progress. Please submit information you may have to refresh my memory. 

Note:  With the exception of the newspaper images,all of the above is copyrighted material, all rights reserved.  Permission for use will be considered upon written request.  Blog comments are encouraged, the use of actual full names is strongly recommended, as are affiliations with organizations.

Chapman Kelley's Memoirs - Chapter 9

          Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn are considered to be the most dedicated collectors of American art.  On their way home to Connecticut in 1972, they first stopped in Texas to visit with President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird at the LBJ Ranch.  In the wake of their ranch visit I gave the Hirshhorns a tour of my Fairmont St. building.  In the upstairs gallery they happened upon a horizontal diamond shaped canvas with an enclosed ellipse containing a field of wildflowers.  Joe immediately said, “I’ll take that. Who painted it?” When I told him I was the painter he apologized to me; until that moment he had only known of me as being a gallerist.  Joe couldn’t buy the work anyway because Mary Wells, the wife of Braniff International Airways executive Lawrence Harding, had just purchased it for her New York advertising firm Wells, Rich & Greene.  That ad firm introduced Braniff airplanes to a bold color scheme and is responsible for fitting its stewardess’s with attractive uniforms.

          I then brought Olga and Joe to my studio on Hall St.  If I may say so, the studio was one of the best appointed and beautiful, anywhere.  At the time I just so happened to have hanging a Kenneth Noland “target” painting and a Frank Stella “squares within squares” work. Joe said that he already had examples of the same periods of both artists’ work.  I took that to mean that he was not inclined to buy; I was correct.  However, he was interested in the works’ pricing.  When I told him they were $25,000 each he let out a hearty laugh because when he had purchased their work from their studios he had to forward them the money to buy stretchers for the paintings.  Obviously Noland and Stella had come a long way but back then they were financially strapped for cash.

          Among more of my work that Olga and Joe saw in my studio, they viewed the scale model of the Standard Oil Building that was scheduled to be erected in Chicago in the 1970s.  They also viewed some of my small paintings representing the very large paintings that Bonnie Swearingen (wife of Amoco chairman John E.) wanted furnished for the Amoco Building (formerly Standard Oil Building) lobby walls.

          Another place I took the Hirshorns was for a tour of the newly built Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth.  That’s where I had the pleasure of introducing them to my friend Kimbell director Rick Brown.  They had much to discuss about the latest security techniques and more that were planned for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., which was then under construction.  Joe in turn introduced me to David Rockefeller.  He was the first of the renowned Rockefeller family member I met.  David happened to be touring North Texas with a group of bankers.  The Hirshhorns and I toured the Algur “Al” Meadows art collection with Al and his wife at the Meadow's residence.

         

My first sighting of LBJ

          The morning of November 22, 1963, Atelier Chapman Kelley staff was busy framing the paintings I had made in Provincetown, MA; that work was soon to be exhibited at my second one-man show in New York.  As midday rolled around I allowed the staff to take an extended outdoor break to watch President John F. Kennedy’s historic motorcade cruise by.  The announced route was near my atelier and within easy walking distance.  I felt self conscious because my long beard had not been cut since the fourth of July.  My friend the barber Luis Santos had yet to decide what he wanted to sculpt from the bushy mess.  I carried a portable radio in hand and wore sunglasses as I stood on an uncrowded sidewalk waiting for the procession of limousines to arrive.  There was much joking among us about any number of Secret Service binoculars and guns trained on me—agents were waiting for any threatening move I might make. As the Presidential motorcade came into view I spotted U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in it.  It was the first time I had ever seen him in person.  Some minutes later, sadly, Dallas and the nation would never be the same as JFK and his entourage intersected with downtown Dealey Plaza.  Almost a decade later I would meet President Johnson for the first time in my life at his LBJ Ranch.

          

I was President Johnson's last visitor at the LBJ Ranch

          Olga and Joe were so impressed with the figurative/nonfigurative concept as expressed in my diptychs, they asked me to paint a pair for them

Kelley diptych in the collection of Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn

and a smaller pair as their gift to President Johnson and Lady Bird.  The work was to hang in the guest room at the LBJ Ranch. Olga obtained some small paintings I had done like those she had seen in the model for her famous collection of miniatures.  Months later Joe Hirshhorn approved his gift paintings, the ones he had asked me to create for the Johnsons. It was finally ready to be hung.  Joe arranged for me to take the diptych to the LBJ Ranch.

at the LBJ Ranch January 20, 1973 - copyright Chapman Kelley, all rights reserved





          On January 20, 1973 I arrived at the LBJ Ranch about 9:00 a.m. Before I actually set foot “inside” the Ranch, I had to negotiate a Secret Service checkpoint.  No problem.  At the house Lady Bird Johnson greeted me.  Shortly afterward LBJ walked in with a rolling gait, not unlike movie actor John Wayne’s deliberate walking style—LBJ was physically almost a giant.  Lady Bird seated us.  After a few moments she kindly excused herself from our presence.  LBJ turned on an array of television sets, three to be exact.  He watched them only long enough to learn that Richard Nixon would indeed be reinaugurated that day, the 37^th President of the United States. In the course of the day lunch was sent to us in place and Lady Bird would return to help in hanging my diptych painting.  Several times Johnson resorted to taking a medicine pill.  I had the idea that I was to simply hang the work, exchange a few pleasantries and be gone in short order.  What in fact unfolded was a spontaneous day-long conversation with the President!  Looking back at the circumstances of that memorable day, Johnson just wanted to talk.

          Initially Johnson and I discussed the Lascaux Caves of southwestern France where early mankind expressed themselves so well with pictures galore on the walls but with no words.  Archeologists have studied that artistic work in order to understand early humans.

          Johnson particularly responded to the Medici family name as being one of the most famous in history not only because of their involvement in the arts but because of their discernment and connoisseurship in picking the best artists to sponsor.  Most of the prominent Florentine gentry supported the artists but the Medici’s picked so well that now because of it tourism is the major industry in bella Firenze or Florence, Italy.

          I was impressed that LBJ seemed to have not only a good grasp of history as humans became more industrialized, urban and self governing but was able to understand (or at least agree with me) that the people and nations that were most open and supporting of new and challenging modes of artistic expression and vision were often not only more livable but also able to envision in many other ways that humankind must always move forward. It is not incidental that both Leonardo da Vinci and Robert Henri, the great art teacher, spoke of art as intervention and both of them lived by that dictum.

          It was interesting to follow the agility of Johnson’s mind as we led through the great influence that painter Mondrian and sculptor Brancusi have had on all of the best aspects of design in the 20^th century.  Practical-minded people are often amazed when asked to consider the applied aspects of the arts.

          In the course of the day-long visit LBJ and I discussed some of our mutual friends; first of course were Olga and Joe Hirshhorn.  It is not an inconsequential thing to have the Hirshhorn name attached as the giver of a gift of art to so public a couple as the Johnsons.  I consider it to have been a great honor.  We spoke of Tom and Etta Frost who happened to be the Johnson’s guests the previous weekend.  Tom’s Frost Bank of San Antonio was at the time believed to be the largest privately-owned bank and Etta Frost’s niece, Joan, was my sister-in-law.  Also discussed was Gladys Greenlee Bowman, a co-developer of adjoining lands with LBJ.  Bowman was the grande dame of Austin, Texas who started Austin’s Jr. League.  She was my aunt Liz’s (Dr. Cole Chapman Kelley’s wife) sister.  Gladys’ son Jack was one of the richest men in San Antonio.  LBJ and I discussed other mutual friends such as Bonnie and John Swearingen of Chicago as well as a number of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio gentry.

          Even though Johnson was obviously very strong minded and strong willed he possessed none of the belligerence of today’s ideologue politicians; he seemed sincerely interested in exploring ideas of mutual interest but on which we had entirely different opinions.  His civility was a winning trait though I think he avoided discussing the Vietnam War with me because my raccoon beard and clothes signaled that I was opposed to the war.

          There are some individuals who say that LBJ carried to his grave the firm belief in his escalation of the war in Vietnam.  I think otherwise, like what U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara later believed, that LBJ’s intelligence told him that he had been wrong; he had to carry the ignominy of that part to his grave.  It would also seem to explain Johnson’s decision not to seek reelection as president in 1968.

          My belief about Johnson’s thinking is based upon his interest in the Free University at Lee Park, which I created, as I had described to him during our visit.  I shared with him my experience in bringing together the civic and political leaders of Dallas to meet, with mutual respect, the youth who were part of the 1960s movement.  And we did it on the youth’s turf.  Everyone agreed that democratic consensus must begin with civil and open dialogue.  Isn’t that what LBJ was famous for?  I couldn’t help but think that had conciliatory movements like the Free University at Lee Park between the “establishment” and the idealistic youth movement (and shouldn’t all youth be that way?) taken place a decade earlier the Vietnam War could have been avoided. 

          LBJ’s faith in academics is indicated by his trust in education—it must be remembered that a portion of his career includes being a teacher.  LBJ must have felt that he had let the country down, just as he had been let down by his advisers, those “best and the brightest” individuals of his administration.  It is however LBJ’s choice of subjects of our conversation during that day that causes me to feel confident of my conclusions. Even though at the time I was anti-war, I felt that LBJ’s domestic legislation was the best in history and if the Vietnam War had not given his detractors a reason to take it apart piecemeal LBJ would be considered to be one of the greatest two-term presidents.  It was clear that Johnson’s view of the best of human endeavors was for mankind to always move forward—a progressive agenda.  His domestic legislation strived to make what he valued a practicality; he sponsored policy changes to education, civil rights for minorities, medical security for the elderly.  On balance, reforms in those areas improved his legacy because they have that most treasured ingredient—a lasting effect infused with meaning. 

         

          When it was brought to LBJ’s attention that Queen Elizabeth, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, the Israeli and Canadian governments had each vigorously entertained Olga and Joe seeking to obtain the vast Hirshhorn collection of American art for permanent export, LBJ was the prime mover and shaker in securing the collection for the people of the United States.  He arranged for the art collection to be housed on the Washington Mall.  Bravo LBJ!  What more evidence is necessary to cement his legacy as a true champion of the visual arts, certainly a long lasting endeavor?

          I later learned from Lady Bird that LBJ did know before he died that peace negotiations would soon end the war and the information was to be made public in the near future.

          I often wonder what Bill Moyers, surely the most trusted journalist since Walter Cronkite, would think of my observations about Johnson given that Moyers served in a number of positions in the John F. Kennedy and LBJ administrations. 




Limited edition leather bound book of photos of  "LBJ Country"

        

          I had the opportunity to provide LBJ some solace; I shared with him the many reasons for the arts’ importance.  Those have been at the core of many of my lectures in the past and still are.  Interestingly, nine years after LBJ’S death, speaking in the same room at the LBJ Ranch, I found myself giving the same emphasis to Lady Bird and members of the famed Rockefeller family, Lawrence and Mary, on the utmost importance of design and the language of the arts in all human endeavors.

          That complete freedom of expression is of absolute necessity for all creative persons is evident.  We must expect that all liberal democratic societies that desire this freedom will fight for it and then we may expect a meaningful society with the flourishing of the arts.

          As Robert M. “Mac” Doty said of Dallas having an authentic renaissance in the 1950s and 1960s, we more recently have taken a path of intolerance and have lost our international preeminence in the arts.  It hurts to know that even the Dallas Symphony and the Dallas Opera have drastically reduced their performance schedule in the same season.  Leadership in the arts has become or at least has the appearance of being a game of musical chairs.  The transformation of the arts into commodities has taken its toll and gotten the art world in trouble.  We certainly have the precedence of great civilizations of the past to build upon.  And recognize that indigenous populations were cut short by invaders’ worship of gold, truly a mistake in the pursuit of materialistic goods over honoring preexisting cultural values. 

          The Dallas – Ft. Worth area is now a large metropolis with far more people and money to erect not just buildings covered with donors’ names but not only have we not even retained or enlarged the necessary appetite and audience who would support the arts and inevitably the artists here as they did decades ago. Intolerance of any kind does not pay in the long run. Certainly it doesn’t belong in the arts where the artist is the central and most essential person. Can’t people realize that if we again support artists with the fairness, freedom and support they deserve it will produce a finer and more real civilization that warfare never will? 

          I hope the powers that be are listening to the current Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Museums movement.  Their basic beliefs seem to me to represent the feelings of most fair-minded Americans who strongly believe in democracy.

          I have in my possession a note from Lady Bird Johnson expressing her gratitude to me for being LBJs very last visitor at their home, the LBJ Ranch, before he died of a heart attack less than 36 hours later. A New York Times reporter expressed an interest in my having been the last visitor, but he never followed up.

Below is a personal note from the Hirshhorns to yours truly.



January 5, 1973 note from the Hirshhorns to Chapman Kelley

Above note transcribed:

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hirshhorn

Dear Chapman -
The tiny paintings arrived and they are most beautiful.  I have not yet hung them as I have to find a special spot---perhaps our home in Florida.  Thank you for doing them for me to add to my collection of miniatures.  Incidentally, the Greewwich Library is going to show it next November.  We sent your large paintings to our home in Florida--rather than store them.  They are just stunning.  Have the Johnsons called you yet?  
As ever,
Olga     Jan. 5, 1973

Below is a 1973 letter from Lady Bird Johnson to the Hirshhorns regarding yours truly.



letter from Lady Bird Johnson to Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn regarding Chapman Kelley



 Above letter transcribed:

February 9, 1973              Stonewall, Texas

Dear Olga and Joe:

     Thank you for giving us the comfort and courage of your heartfelt sympathy.  Your message came so soon and meant so much to us all.

     And now I must tell you something very special. On what turned out to be Lyndon's last Saturday, your beautiful paintings were brought to the Ranch by Chapman Kelley.  He propped them up in the living room and Lyndon and I were absolutely enchanted.  I love them -- and more importantly they pleased Lyndon very much.  They are so light and airy and express the way I feel about this countryside in April.

     Mr. Kelley and I walked around the house holding them up -- we even considered putting them in the guest house which Lyndon showed you -- but they finally came to rest in the perfect place -- the master guest room upstairs which is full of soft greens and yellows

     They pleased Lyndon very much and I am grateful that you made him happy then, and so often in the past.

With gratitude

Lady Bird Johnson 

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          These memoirs are a work in progress. Please submit information you may have to refresh my memory. 

Note:  All of the above is copyrighted material, all rights reserved.  Permission for use will be considered upon written request.  Blog comments are encouraged, the use of actual full names is strongly recommended, as are affiliations with organizations.