Jones was born in Boston, 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 from Suffolk Law School.[4] Her mother worked as a cosmetologist.[5] Jones's parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during her childhood. Her parents bought a house on Martha's Vineyard, where Jones met those who influenced her life and art, such as sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, composer Harry T. Burleigh, and novelist Dorothy West.[6]
From 1919 to 1923, Jones attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. During these years, she took night classes from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through an annual scholarship. Additionally, she apprenticed in costume design with Grace Ripley. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha's Vineyard.[7] Jones began experimenting with African mask influences during her time at the Ripley Studio. From her research of African masks, Jones created costume designs for Denishawn.[8]: 178
From 1923 to 1927, Jones attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston[9] to study design, where she won the Susan Minot Lane Scholarship in Design yearly. She took night courses at the Boston Normal Art School while working towards her degree. After graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she received her graduate degree in design from the Design Art School of Boston in 1928. Afterwards, she began working at the F. A. Foster Company in Boston and the Schumacher Company in New York City. During the summer of 1928, she attended Howard University, where she decided to focus on painting instead of design.[7]
Jones continued taking classes throughout her lifetime. In 1934, she took classes on different cultural masks at Columbia University. In 1945, she received a BA in art education from Howard University, graduating magna cum laude.[7]
Career and life
Jones's career began in the 1930s and she continued to produce art work until her death in 1998 at the age of 92. Her style shifted and evolved multiple times in response to influences in her life, especially her extensive travels. She worked with different mediums, techniques, and influences throughout her long career. Her extensive travels throughout Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean influenced and changed how she painted. She felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists". She wished to be known as an American painter with no labels.[10] Her work echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry.
1928–1936
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 South where "her people" lived.[8]: 186 In 1928 she was hired by Charlotte Hawkins Brown after some initial reservations, and subsequently founded the art department at Palmer Memorial Institute, a historically black prep school, in Sedalia, North Carolina. As a prep school teacher, she coached a basketball team, taught folk dancing, and played the piano for church services. In 1930, she was recruited by James Vernon Herring to join the art department at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Jones remained as professor of design and watercolor painting until her retirement in 1977. She 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 own work as an artist, she 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 art work. She began to exhibit her works with the William E. Harmon Foundation with a charcoal drawing of a student at the Palmer Memorial Institute, Negro Youth (1929). In this period, she 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 the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Movement.[8]Aaron Douglas, a Harlem Renaissance artist, influenced her seminal art piece The 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 works Negro Youth and Ascent 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 she occasionally collaborated with poet Gertrude P. McBrown; for example, McBrown's poem, "Fire-Flies," appears with an illustration by Jones in the April 1929 issue of the Saturday Evening Quill.
[13][14]
1937–1953
In 1937, Jones received a fellowship to study in Paris at the Académie Julian. She produced more than 30 watercolors during her year in France.[7] In total, she completed approximately 40 paintings during her time at the Académie, utilizing the en 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 fully accepted in society as opposed to the United States at this time. The French were appreciative of paintings and talent. After she was granted an extension of her fellowship to travel to Italy, she returned to Howard University and taught watercolor painting classes.[11]: 31 [7]
In 1938, she produced Les Fétiches (1938), an African-inspired oil painting that is owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[15] Jones painted Les Fétiches in a Post-Cubist and Post-Primitive style. Five African masks swirl around the dark canvas. She was able to view and study many different African objects and masks at the Musée de l'Homme and galleries through her fellowship in Paris. In Les Fétiches, masks from Songye Kifwebe and Guru Dan are visible.[12]
In 1941, Jones entered her painting Indian Shops Gay Head, Massachusetts into the Corcoran Gallery's annual competition. At the time, the Corcoran Gallery prohibited African-American artists from entering their artworks themselves. Jones had Tabary enter her painting to circumvent the rule. Jones ended up winning 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. In spite of 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 exhibition The 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 as Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, and Léopold Sédar Senghor.[16] She also completed Parisian Beggar Woman with text supplied by Langston 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]
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 with Celine Marie Tabary in Cabris, France[19] While in France a part of her inspiration was Tabary, also a painter, whom she 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 along with post impressionist influences are highlighted as Jones employees uses rich oranges, yellows, tans complemented with clean blues and delicate greens while remaining tonally warm palette. The geometric houses echo and asymmetric composition echos the post-impressionist influences on Jones at the time.[21] This is influence can be recognized through her landscape and documentary portraits of people and landscapes in France and in America between the years of 1948-1953.[22]
Alain Locke, a philosophy professor at Howard University and founder of the Harlem Renaissance, encouraged Jones to paint her heritage. She painted her striking painting Mob Victim (Meditation) after walking along U St Northwest in Washington, D.C. She saw a man walking and was prompted to ask him to pose in her studio. She 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 were Dans un Café à Paris (Leigh Whipper), The Janitor and The Pink Table Cloth.[11]: 51
Previously in 1934, Jones met Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, a prominent Haitian artist, while both were students at Columbia University. They corresponded for almost 20 years before marrying in the south of France in 1953.[11]: 53 Jones and her husband lived in Washington, D.C., and Haiti. Their frequent trips to Haiti inspired and impacted Jones' art style significantly.[11]: 77
Lois Jones, artist at work
1954–1967
In 1954, Jones was a guest professor at Centre D'Art and Foyer des Artes Plastiques in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where the government invited her to paint Haitian people and landscapes. Her work became energized by the bright colors. She 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 show Oeuvres des Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël, which was sponsored by the First 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, she unveiled portraits of the Haitian president and his wife commissioned by United States PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower.[7]
Jones's numerous oils and watercolors inspired by Haiti are probably her most widely known works. In them her affinity for bright colors, her personal understanding of Cubism's basic principles, and her search for a distinct style reached an apogee. In many of her pieces one can see the influence of the Haitian culture, with its African influences, which reinvigorated the way she looked at the world. These include Ode to Kinshasa and Ubi 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 1968, she documented work and interviews of contemporary Haitian artists for Howard University's "The Black Visual Arts" research grant.
Jones received the same grant in 1970 as well. Between 1968 and 1970, she traveled to 11 African countries, which influenced her painting style. She documented and interviewed contemporary African artists in Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Dahomey (today known as Benin), Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal.[11]: 97 Her report Contemporary African Art was published in 1970 and in 1971 she delivered 1000 slides and other materials to the University as fulfillment of 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 the Vietnam War. While many Washington, D.C., artists did not paint to be political or create their own 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, she 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 into a contemporary expression of similar themes.[11]: 99
On July 29, 1984, Lois Jones Day is declared in Washington, DC.[7]
1989–1998
Lois Jones in her studio, c. 1977
Jones continued to produce exciting new works at an astonishing speed. She traveled to France and experimented with her previous Impressionist-Post-impressionist style that started her career in Paris. Her landscapes were painted with a wider 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, she had been left out of the history books because she did not stick to typical subjects that were suitable for African Americans to paint.[29]
In 1998, Jones died with no immediate survivors at the age of 92 at her home in Washington, DC.[32] She is buried on Martha's Vineyard in the Oak Bluffs Cemetery.[6] Howard University hosted the exhibition Remembering Lois.[7]
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 entitled Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color was held at the Mint 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] She was included in the 2018 Columbus Museum of Art exhibition and catalogue of I too sing America: the Harlem Renaissance at 100.[38]
Atlanta University award for Impasse de l'Oratorie, Grasse, France (1952)
Oil painting award from the Corcoran Gallery of Art Coin de la Place Maubert, Paris (1953)[26]
Chevalier of the National Order of Honor and Merit from the government of Haiti. (1954)[26]
Award for design of publication Voici Hätii (1958)[26]
Atlanta University award for Voodoo Worshippers, Haiti and America's National Museum of Art award for Fishing Smacks, Menemsha, Massachusetts (1960)[26]
Elected person of The Royal Society of Arts in London. Received the Franz Bader Award for Oil Painting from National Museum of Art for Peasants on Parade (1962)[26]
Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Colorado State University (1973)[26]
Howard University Fine Arts Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (1975)[26]
Six Distinguished Women Artists, 1976, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY[7]
Solo exhibition, 1979, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC[7]
The World of Loïs Mailou Jones, 1990–1996, The Meridian International Center, Toured throughout the nation[7]
The Art of Loïs Mailou Jones, 1991–1993, Bomani Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA[65]
The Life and Art of Lois Mailou Jones, 1994, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC[7]
Loïs Mailou Jones: The Early Works: Paintings and Patterns 1927–1937, 2006, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA[7]
Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color, 2009–2010, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC[66]
Full Spectrum: The Prolific Master within Loïs Mailou Jones, 2014–2015, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in Partnership with the Loïs Mailou Jones Trust, The I Street Gallery, Washington, DC[67]
The Life and Work of Lois Mailou Jones, 2015, Martha's Vineyard Museum, Edgartown, MA[68]
^ abcdHelene, Kirschke Amy; Renee, Ater (2014). Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-62846-033-9. OCLC922665448.
^Recasens, Sonia. "Lois Mailou Jones". AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
^Laduke, Betty (1987-01-01). "Lois Mailou Jones: The Grande Dame of African-American Art". Woman's Art Journal. 8 (2): 32. doi:10.2307/1358163. JSTOR1358163.
^ abcdefghijklmnBenjamin, Tritobia H. (1994). Life and art of Lois Mailou Jones. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks.
^ abFinley, Cheryl (2011). "The Mask as Muse: The Influence of African Art on the Life and Career of Loïs Mailou Jones". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. 29.
^Wall, Joseph Frazier (February 2000). Girdler, Tom Mercer (1877-1965), industrialist. American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1000636.
^ abCohen, Jean Lawlor; Sidney Lawrence; Elizabeth Tebow; Benjamin Forgey (2013-01-01). Washington art matters: art life in the capital 1940–1990. Washington Arts Museum. ISBN978-0-615-82826-8. OCLC854910561.
^Kennelly, Eleanor (September 16, 1994). "Three cultures on an easel – Jones' art reflects travels, heritage". The Washington Times.
Hills, Patricia (2005). Syncopated Rhythms: 20th Century African American Art from George and Joyce Wein Collection. Boston: Boston University Art Gallery.
Martin, Elizabeth (1997). Female Gazes:Seventy-Five Women Artists. Toronto: Second Story Press.
Perry, Regenia (1992). Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art. Washington, DC and San Francisco: Smithsonian Institution in association with Pomegranate Books.
Rowell, Charles Henry (2016). "Loïs Mailou Jones." Callaloo, vol. 39 no. 5, 2016, p. 1017-1101. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cal.2016.0142.
Seamon, Donna (2017). Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists. New York: Bloomsbury USA.
VanDiver, Rebecca (2020). Designing a New Tradition: Loïs Mailou Jones and the Aesthetics of Blackness. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN978-0-271-08604-0.
Ware, Susan; Braukman, Stacy Lorraine (2004). "Notable American Women: Completing the Twentieth Century". Harvard University Press, 1st edition. ISBN978-0-674-01488-6.