Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998)

Lois Mailou Jones’ career spanned seven decades, and her paintings represented a variety of artistic techniques and themes as her style evolved. Her work remained consistent in her thoughtful use of color and strong sense of design, both of which were instilled in her through her extensive education at institutions such as the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, the Boston Normal Art School, and the Designer’s Art School of Boston.

At the beginning of her career, Jones submitted textile designs through a white classmate that were used by major textile firms. She went to work at Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina, helping to establish an art department. Professor James Herring was so impressed with her work, that he asked her to join the faculty at Howard University. Jones held a position here for the next 47 years. A number of her students went on to have extremely successful careers in art, including Elizabeth Catlett and David Driskell.

In 1937, Jones went to Paris for a years sabbatical. She attended the Academie Julian and began painting plein air. She would continue to return to Paris throughout her life; like other African American artists of the time, she felt a freedom there that was profound. Jones found another spiritual home in Haiti. In 1954, she was invited to visit and paint the country’s landscape and the people. The works she produced in this period are her most widely known works. Jones was equally at home painting French landscapes and figure studies. Her work is found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Metropolitan Museum, NY; and the National Palace, Haiti.

Jones’s incredibly varied work has shown extensively throughout her career. The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, organized the exhibition Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color in 2011. In 2013, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston held a show of 30 paintings and drawings showing her versatility and mastery of techinique. Her work was also included in the exhibition, I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100, held at the Columbus Museum of Art, OH, in 2018.

The silkscreens offered in this sale, are from a series of five silkscreen prints by Jones inspired by the poetry of Léopold Sédar Senghor and published by the Limited Editions Club. Senghor was born in French West Africa and was the first black member inducted into the French Academy. In 1960, he was unanimously elected the first president of Senegal (and re-elected four times). As a poet, he represented the literary and artistic expression of the black African experience. With Aimé Césaire, Senghor co-founded the Négritude movement, which promoted distinctly African cultural values and aesthetics, in opposition to the influence of French colonialism and European exploitation. Jones and Senghor were mutual admirers of each others art. In 1970, Jones traveled to Africa with a grant from Howard University and visited eleven African countries. During her visit she would lecture about African-American art and met and interviewed African artists about their work. She would return several times over the next decade.

Jones’s work is held in many important collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Howard University, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; and the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.