Encouraged by the African-American sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, Lois Mailou Jones enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, and went on to become the first African American to graduate from it. Showing great talent from a young age, she held...
Lois Mailou Jones was born on November 3, 1905 in Boston, Massachusetts. She had quite a different childhood than Augusta in that her parents strongly encouraged her to pursue her passion of art. S…
Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color is a lively exhibition surveying the wide array of subjects and styles explored by the artist throughout her lifetime. The myriad of themes explored by Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998) over the impressive length of her career makes for a dynamic exhibition of more than 70 works, including […]
Download a high resolution poster of Loïs' Mailou Jones' "Two Women" (ca. 1950).
Encouraged by the African-American sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, Lois Mailou Jones enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, and went on to become the first African American to graduate from it. Showing great talent from a young age, she held...
Rebecca VanDiver hopes that her book will appeal to readers interested in “what it means to be Black in the 20th century, what it means to Black in the 21st century.”
Five overlapping masks from different African tribes convey a mysterious spiritual dimension summoned by ritual dance.
The artistic talent of Lois Mailou Jones was recognized at an early age. She received a wide range of encouragement but, in what was the first of several rejections in an openly racist society, she…
This June Five Friday Finds from France features Loïs Mailou Jones and other Black American Artists in Paris, Christian Dior's cookbook, and more.
For much of the past century of Modern art, African-American artists often looked like outliers. Why did pioneering black painters like Boston-native Loïs Mailou Jones continue to work realistically as the thrust of Western art was toward abstraction?
Her paintings have hung in the White House and are in the permanent collections of major museums like The Met, but some of Lois Mailou Jones’ most appealing work was created for an entirely different kind of canvas: textiles. Before she was known as a painter, this art-world pioneer worked as a successful pattern designer for high-end firms like the F.A. Foster Company and yes, even Schumacher.
Visual artist Lois Mailou Jones was born in 1905 in Boston, Massachusetts to Thomas Vreeland and Carolyn Dorinda Jones. Her father was a superintendent of a building and later became a lawyer, her mother was a cosmetologist. Early in life Jones displayed a passion for drawing, and her parents encouraged this interest by enrolling her in the High School of Practical Arts in Boston where she majored in art. In 1927, Jones graduated with honors from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and continued her education at the Boston Normal School of Arts and the Designers Art School in Boston. A year later, Jones formed and chaired the art department at Palmer Memorial Institute, an all-black prep school in North Carolina. In 1928, she accepted a position at Howard University in Washington, D.C. where her art courses helped shape the careers of notable artists Elizabeth Catlett and Starmanda Bullock. Jones simultaneously pursued painting, using her immediate surroundings as inspiration for “Mob Victim,” “The Banjo Player,” and “Janitor.” Jones’s formal career as a painter began on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard when she met sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, who inspired one of her earliest paintings, “The Ascent of Ethiopia,” a tribute to Africa and the Harlem Renaissance. Fuller later persuaded Jones to emigrate to France where she would be fully appreciated as an artist. In 1937, Jones took a one-year sabbatical from Howard University to study at Academie Julian in Paris. While living abroad, many of Jones’s works were inspired by the Luxemburg Gardens, boulevards, art galleries, and cafes of Paris. Her most celebrated Parisian painting, “Les Fetiches,” was a depiction of African Masks. Much of Jones’s art reflects her summer travels to Martha’s Vineyard and her travels to Africa and Haiti. Jones, however, credited France with giving her the freedom and stability she needed to flourish as an artist. After retiring from Howard University in 1977, Jones continued to exhibit, paint, and travel. Throughout her seven-decade career, she became the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards, including one from the Harmon Foundation and Corcoran Gallery of Art. Lois Mailou Jones, longest-surviving artist of the Harlem Renaissance, died at the age of 98 in Washington, D.C. - Taken from blackpast.org
Lois Mailou Jones was an American painter and educator whose works reflect a command of widely varied styles, from traditional landscape to African-themed abstraction. Jones was reared in Boston by middle-class parents who nurtured her precocious talent and ambition. She studied art at Boston High
For much of the past century of Modern art, African-American artists often looked like outliers. Why did pioneering black painters like Boston-native Loïs Mailou Jones continue to work realistically as the thrust of Western art was toward abstraction?
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step Lois Mailou Jones video art lesson. Stop by and download this Black History art lesson free.
Lois Mailou Jones was an American painter and educator whose works reflect a command of widely varied styles, from traditional landscape to African-themed abstraction. Jones was reared in Boston by middle-class parents who nurtured her precocious talent and ambition. She studied art at Boston High
Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1998) was a US artist who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
A decorator once told Lois Mailou Jones that a "colored girl" wasn't capable of producing such beautiful designs. This was a turning point in the young black woman's artistic career -- a career that eventually brought her recognition from U.S. presidents for her contributions to the arts.
Oil on canvas. Featuring a Haitian woman with two masks. Signed and attr. to Lois Mailou Jones. 71 x 50.1 cm. PROVENANCE: Private Canadian collection.
Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1998) was a US artist who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
Lois Mailou Jones was born on November 3, 1905 in Boston, Massachusetts. She had quite a different childhood than Augusta in that her parents strongly encouraged her to pursue her passion of art. S…
Lois Mailou Jones was an African American artist born in Boston (November 3, 1905-June 9, 1998), who served as a strong force in teaching and promoting African American art. Jones was the only Afri…
For much of the past century of Modern art, African-American artists often looked like outliers. Why did pioneering black painters like Boston-native Loïs Mailou Jones continue to work realistically as the thrust of Western art was toward abstraction?
Her paintings have hung in the White House and are in the permanent collections of major museums like The Met, but some of Lois Mailou Jones’ most appealing work was created for an entirely different kind of canvas: textiles. Before she was known as a painter, this art-world pioneer worked as a successful pattern designer for high-end firms like the F.A. Foster Company and yes, even Schumacher.
Lois Mailou Jones “was an iconic African- American painter and an important historic link in a path-breaking generation of Black American artists. Her eclectic, academic work, in a career spanning nearly 70 years, ranged from impressionistic landscapes to political allegories, and from cubistic depictions of African sculptures to realistic portraits.” Lois...
