The Passion

By James Brown

Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about Easter. But here are a few things I do know about: 1) Coffee 2) Deep shades of purple 3) Comically oversized books 4) James Brown. Sadly, my knowledge of James Brown will prove useless once again because the James Brown we are dealing with today is not James Brown the musician (1933-2006), but James Brown the American artist who lived in France and Mexico (1951-2020). In 1988, while his musical counterpart would soon be involved in a car chase that led to his eventual incarceration, Brown visited the island of Procida, off the coast of Naples, Italy to witness the release of prisoners. Every Good Friday, prisoners on the island are given their freedom in exchange for participating in a ceremony reenacting the last hours of Jesus. Two days later, on Easter Sunday, the artist was inspired to paint a series of 40 paintings using coffee on paper. The Swiss publisher Propexus, put out this edition in 1991 in a gorgeous purple cloth binding at 50 centimeters in height. The contrast between the attention-getting cover and the humble materials involved in the illustration is striking. Click here for slideshow.

- Daniel Scheide