Lois Mailou Jones | |
|---|---|
 Loïs Mailou Jones c. 1936 | |
| Born | (1905-11-03)November 3, 1905 |
| Died | June 9, 1998(1998-06-09) (aged 92) |
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998)[1] was anartist andeducator. Her work can be found in the collections of theSmithsonian American Art Museum,The Metropolitan Museum of Art, theNational Museum of Women in the Arts, theBrooklyn Museum, theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston,Muscarelle Museum of Art, andThe Phillips Collection. Jones is often associated with theHarlem Renaissance.
Jones was born inBoston, Massachusetts,[2][3] to Thomas Vreeland Jones and Carolyn Adams. Her father was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree fromSuffolk Law School.[4] Her mother worked as a cosmetologist.[5] Jones's parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during childhood. Her parents bought a house onMartha's Vineyard, where Jones met those who influenced her life and art, such as sculptorMeta Warrick Fuller, composerHarry T. Burleigh, and novelistDorothy West.[6]
From 1919 to 1923, Jones attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. During these years, Jones took night classes from theBoston Museum of Fine Arts through an annual scholarship. Additionally, Jones apprenticed in costume design withGrace Ripley. Jones held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha's Vineyard.[7] Jones began experimenting with African mask influences at the Ripley Studio. From her research of African masks, Jones created costume designs forDenishawn.[8]: 178
From 1923 to 1927, Jones attended theSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston[9] to study design, where she won the Susan Minot Lane Scholarship in Design yearly. Jones took night courses at theBoston Normal Art School while working towards her degree. After graduating from theSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts, Jones received her graduate degree in design from theDesign Art School of Boston in 1928. Afterward, Jones began working at the F. A. Foster Company in Boston and the Schumacher Company in New York City. During the summer of 1928, Jones attendedHoward University, where she decided to focus on painting instead of design.[7]
Jones continued taking classes throughout her lifetime. In 1934, Jones took classes on different cultural masks atColumbia University. In 1945, Jones received a BA in art education fromHoward University, graduating magna cum laude.[7]
Jones's career began in the 1930s and continued producing artwork until she died in 1998 at 92. Her style shifted and evolved multiple times in response to influences in her life, especially her extensive travels. Jones worked with different mediums, techniques, and influences throughout her career. Her extensive travels throughout Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean influenced and changed how Jones painted. Jones felt that her most significant contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists". Jones wished to be known as an American painter with no labels.[10] Her work echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry.
Jones' teaching career began shortly after finishing college. The director of the Boston Museum School refused to hire her, telling her to find a job in the Southern United States where "her people" lived.[8]: 186 In 1928, Jones was hired byCharlotte Hawkins Brown after some initial reservations, and subsequently founded the art department atPalmer Memorial Institute, a historically black prep school, inSedalia, North Carolina. As a prep school teacher, Jones coached a basketball team, taughtfolk dancing, and played the piano for church services. In 1930, Jones was recruited by James Vernon Herring to join the art department atHoward University in Washington, D.C., Jones remained as professor of design andwatercolor painting until her retirement in 1977. Jones worked to prepare her students for a competitive career in the arts by inviting working designers and artists into her classroom for workshops. While developing her work as an artist, Jones became an outstanding mentor and strong advocate for African-American art and artists.[11]: 13 14 15 16
In the early 1930s, Jones began to seek recognition for her designs and artwork. Jones began to exhibit her works with theWilliam E. Harmon Foundation with a charcoal drawing of a student at the Palmer Memorial Institute,Negro Youth (1929). In this period, Jones shifted away from designs and began experimenting with portraiture.[11]: 25
Jones developed as an artist through visits and summers spent in Harlem during the onset of theHarlem Renaissance orNew Negro Movement.[8]Aaron Douglas, a Harlem Renaissance artist, influenced her seminal art pieceThe Ascent of Ethiopia. African design elements can be seen in both Douglas and Jones' paintings. Jones studied actual objects and design elements from Africa.[8]: 193
In her worksNegro Youth andAscent of Ethiopia the influence of African masks are seen in the profiles of the faces. The chiseled structures and shading renderings mimic three-dimensional masks that Jones studied.[12] Jones would utilize this style throughout her career.
During this period Jones occasionally collaborated with poetGertrude P. McBrown; for example, McBrown's poem, "Fire-Flies," appears with an illustration by Jones in the April 1929 issue of theSaturday Evening Quill.[13][14]
In 1937, Jones received a fellowship to study in Paris at theAcadémie Julian. Jones produced more than 30 watercolors during her year in France.[7] In total, Jones completed approximately 40 paintings during her time at the Académie, utilizing theen plein air method of painting that she used throughout her career. Two paintings were accepted at the annual Salon de Printemps exhibition at the Société des Artists Français for her Parisian debut.[11]: 29–30 Jones loved her time in Paris as she felt entirely accepted in society as opposed to the United States at this time. The French were appreciative of paintings and talent. After being granted an extension of her fellowship to travel to Italy, Jones returned to Howard University and taught watercolor painting classes.[11]: 31 [7]
In 1938, Jones producedLes Fétiches (1938), an African-inspired oil painting that is owned by theSmithsonian American Art Museum.[15] Jones paintedLes Fétiches in a Post-Cubist and Post-Primitive style. Five African masks swirl around the dark canvas. Jones could view and study many different African objects and masks at theMusée de l'Homme and galleries through her fellowship in Paris. InLes Fétiches, masks from SongyeKifwebe and Guru Dan are visible.[12]
In 1941, Jones entered her paintingIndian Shops Gay Head, Massachusetts into theCorcoran Gallery of Art's annual competition. At the time, the Corcoran Gallery prohibited African-American artists from entering their artworks. Jones hadTabary enter her painting to circumvent the rule. Jones won the Robert Woods Bliss Award for this work of art, yet she could not pick up the award herself. Tabary had to mail the award to Jones. Despite these issues, Jones worked harder notwithstanding the racial biases found throughout the country at this time.[11]: 49 50 In 1994, the Corcoran Gallery of Art gave a public apology to Jones at the opening of the exhibitionThe World of Lois Mailou Jones, 50 years after Jones hid her identity.[6]
Jones'Les Fétiches was instrumental in transitioning "Négritude" — a distinctly francophone artistic phenomenon — from the predominantly literary realm into the visual. Her work provided an important visual link to Négritude authors such asAimé Césaire,Léon Damas, andLéopold Sédar Senghor.[16] Jones also completedParisian Beggar Woman with text supplied byLangston Hughes.[7] In 1938, Jones' first solo exhibition was hung in the Whyte Gallery and would later be exhibited at the Howard University Gallery of Art in 1948.[17]
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Jones painted "Arreau, Hautes-Pyrenees"[18] in France during one of her many trips to France between the years of 1945-1953 where she shared a summer studio withCeline Marie Tabary inCabris, France[19] While in France a part of her inspiration wasTabary, also a painter, whom Jones worked with for many years. Tabary submitted Jones' paintings for consideration for jury prizes since works by African-American artists were not always accepted.[7][20] Jones traveled extensively with Tabary, including to the south of France. They frequently painted each other. They taught art together in the 1940s.[7]Arreau, Hautes-Pyrenees which is an oil on canvas landscape that stars a hillside in the South of France. The French influence and post-impressionist influences are highlighted as Jones employees use rich oranges, yellows, and tans, complemented with clean blues and delicate greens while remaining in a tonally warm palette. The geometric houses echo an asymmetric composition that echoes the post-impressionist influences on Jones at the time.[21] This influence can be recognized through her landscape and documentary portraits of people and landscapes in France and America between the years of 1948–1953.[22]
Over the next 10 years, Jones exhibited at thePhillips Collection,Seattle Art Museum,National Academy of Design, theBarnett-Aden Gallery,Pennsylvania's Lincoln University,Howard University, galleries in New York, and theCorcoran Gallery of Art. In 1952, the bookLoïs Mailou Jones: Peintures 1937–1951 was published, reproducing more than one hundred of her art pieces completed in France.[7] At the Barnett-Aden Gallery, Jones exhibited with a group of prominent black artists, such asJacob Lawrence andAlma Thomas. These artists and others were known as the "Little Paris Group."[23]: 27
Alain Locke, a philosophy professor at Howard University and founder of theHarlem Renaissance, encouraged Jones to paint her heritage. Jones painted her striking paintingMob Victim (Meditation) after walking along U St Northwest in the District of Columbia. Jones saw a man walking and asked him to pose in her studio. Jones wanted to depict a lynching scene. The man had seen a person being lynched before and mimicked the pose that the man held before being lynched.[24] The painting illustrates a contemplation of imminent death that many male African Americans were facing during the 1940s.[11]: 51 Other paintings that came out of Locke's encouragement wereDans un Café à Paris (Leigh Whipper),The Janitor andThe Pink Table Cloth.[11]: 51
Previously in 1934, Jones metLouis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, a prominentHaitian artist, while both were students at Columbia University. They corresponded for almost 20 years before marrying in southern France in 1953.[11]: 53 Jones and her husband lived inWashington, D.C., andHaiti. Their frequent trips to Haiti inspired and impacted Jones' art style significantly.[11]: 77
In 1954, Jones was a guest professor at Centre D'Art and Foyer des Arts Plastiques inPort-au-Prince, Haiti, where the government invited her to paint Haitian people and landscapes. Her work became energized by the bright colors. Jones and her husband returned there during summers for the next several years, in addition to frequent trips to France. Jones completed 42 paintings and exhibited them in her showOeuvres des Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël, which was sponsored by theFirst Lady of Haiti. As a result of her paintings, Jones was given the Diplôme et Décoration de l'Ordre National "Honneur et Mérite au Grade de Chevalier."[11]: 77 In 1955, Jones unveiled portraits of the Haitian president and his wife commissioned byUnited States PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower.[7]
Jones's numerous oils and watercolors inspired by Haiti are probably her most widely known works. Her affinity for bright colors, her understanding of Cubism's basic principles, and her search for a distinct style reached an apogee in them. In many of her pieces, one can see the influence of theHaitian culture, with its African influences reinvigorating how Jones viewed the world. These includeOde to Kinshasa andUbi Girl from Tai Region. Her work became more abstract, vibrant, and thematically after moving to Haiti. Her previously impressionist techniques gave way to a spirited, richly patterned, and brilliantly colored style.[17]
In the 1960s, Jones exhibited atSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,Cornell University, and galleries in France, New York, and the District of Columbia. In 1962, Jones initiated Howard University's first art student tour of France, including study atAcadémie de la Grande Chaumière and guided several more tours over the years.[7]
In 1968, Jones documented work and interviews of contemporaryHaitian artists for Howard University's "The Black Visual Arts" research grant.
Jones received the same grant in 1970 as well. Between 1968 and 1970, Jones traveled to 11 African countries, which influenced her painting style. Jones documented and interviewed contemporary African artists inEthiopia,Sudan,Kenya,Zaire (now known as theDemocratic Republic of the Congo),Nigeria,Dahomey (today known asBenin),Ghana,Ivory Coast,Liberia,Sierra Leone, andSenegal.[11]: 97 Her reportContemporary African Art was published in 1970. In 1971, Jones delivered 1000 slides and other materials to the university to fulfill the project.
On May 22, 1970, Jones took part in a national day of protest in Washington, D.C., that was created by Robert Morris in New York. They protested against racism and theVietnam War. While many Washington, D.C., artists did not paint to be political or create their commentary on racial issues, Jones was greatly influenced by Africa and the Caribbean, which her art reflected.[23]: 80–81 For example, Jones'Moon Masque is thought to represent then-contemporary problems in Africa.[25]
In 1973, Jones received the "Women artists of the Caribbean and Afro-American Artists" grant from Howard University.[26] In the same year, Jones was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Colorado State Christian College.[27]
Her research inspired Jones to synthesize a body of designs and motifs that she combined in large, complex compositions.[28] Jones's return to African themes in her work of the past several decades coincided with the black expressionistic movement in the United States during the 1960s. Skillfully integrating aspects of African masks, figures, and textiles into her vibrant paintings, Jones became a link between the Harlem Renaissance movement and a contemporary expression of similar themes.[11]: 99
On July 29, 1984, Lois Jones Day is declared in Washington, DC.[7]
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Jones continued to produce exciting new works at an astonishing speed. Jones traveled to France and experimented with her previous Impressionist-Post-impressionist style, which started her career in Paris. Her landscapes were painted with a broader color palette from her Haitian and African influences.[11]: 111
On her 84th birthday, Jones had a major heart attack and subsequently a triple bypass.[11]: 112
The Meridian International Center created a retrospective exhibition with the help of Jones herself. 1990 exhibition toured across the country for several years. The exhibition was the first exhibition of Jones that garnered her nationwide attention. Despite her extensive portfolio, teaching career, and cultural work in other countries, Jones had been left out of the history books because she did not stick to typical subjects suitable for African Americans to paint.[29]
Bill Clinton andHillary Clinton collected one of her island seascapes,Breezy Day at Gay Head, while they were inthe White House.[6]
In 1991,The National Museum of Women in the Arts held an exhibition that showcased some of Jones' children's book illustrations.[30]
In 1994, TheCorcoran Gallery of Art openedThe World of Lois Mailou Jones exhibition publicly apologizing for their past racial discrimination.[7]
In 1997, Jones' paintings were featured in an exhibition entitledExplorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris 1945–1965 that appeared at several museums throughout the country including theNew Orleans Museum of Art, theMilwaukee Art Museum, and theStudio Museum of Harlem. The exhibition also featured the works ofBarbara Chase-Riboud,Edward Clark,Harold B. Cousins [fr],Beauford Delaney,Herbert Gentry, and Larry Potter. The exhibition examined the importance of Paris as an artistic mecca for African-American artists during the 20 years that followedWorld War II.[31]
In 1998, Jones died with no immediate survivors at the age of 92 at her home in Washington, DC.[32] Jones is buried onMartha's Vineyard in the Oak Bluffs Cemetery.[6] Howard University hosted the exhibitionRemembering Lois.[7]
Lois Mailou Jones' work is in museums worldwide and valued by collectors. Her paintings grace the permanent collections of theMetropolitan Museum of Art,Smithsonian American Art Museum,Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,National Portrait Gallery,Boston Museum of Fine Arts, theNational Palace in Haiti, theNational Center of Afro-American Artists, among others.
After her death, her friend and adviser, Dr. Chris Chapman completed a book entitledLois Mailou Jones: A life in color about her life and the African-American pioneers Jones had worked with and been friends with, including Dr.Carter G. Woodson,Alain Locke,Dorothy West,Josephine Baker, andMatthew Henson.[33][self-published source]
The Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust founded a scholarship in her name at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a scholarship fund for the Department of Fine Arts at Howard University.[7]
In 2006,Lois Mailou Jones: The Early Works: Paintings and Patterns 1927–1937 opened at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The exhibition showed 30 designs and paintings from the beginning of her career.[34]
From November 14, 2009, to February 29, 2010, a retrospective exhibit of her work entitledLois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color was held at theMint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina.[35] The traveling exhibit included 70 paintings showcasing her various styles and experiences: America, France, Haiti, and Africa.[36][27]
Jones is featured in the 2017 publication,Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists.[37] Jones was included in the 2018Columbus Museum of Art exhibition and catalogue ofI too sing America: the Harlem Renaissance at 100.[38]
Pupils of Jones includedGeorgia Mills Jessup,Martha Jackson Jarvis, andDavid Driskell.[32][39]
