"The Cafe Sebastienne dining room is lined from floor to ceiling with paintings by the late American artist Frederick J. Brown, who died in 2012. The installation, called The History of Art, features 110 oil paintings, each representing an important movement or figure in art throughout the ages. The works cover the cafe’s seven irregular walls, and they can cleverly be identified via a 'map' found on the back of the menu. Dining in the cafe is an immersive experience.
"'The series reflects the words of my mentor Willem de Kooning, who once told me, 'Remember that art is a very old profession—it began with a shaman in a cave,'" Brown said at the time of the permanent installation in 1999...."
— Dawnya Bartsch for Kansas City Magazine
July 12, 2024
