Lois Mailou Jones: The Grande Dame of African-American Art

Abstract

Her creativity undiminished in her 82nd year, Lois Mailou Jones continues to produce powerful paintings that are bold blend of Western and non-Western aesthetic traditions. In paintings like Ubi Girl from the Tai Region (1972) and Deux Coiffeurs d'Afrique (1982), for example, the flat geometric patterns of color juxtaposed with masks and human forms reflect multiplicity of influences-American, French, Caribbean, and African. These recent images have come full circle: Jones first used masks in Boston in the 1920s when she worked as prop designer for the Ted Shawn Dancers and repertory theater company. During this period she also designed fabrics for F.A. Foster and Schumacher in New York City. However, Jones soon realized that designers remained anonymous, and she was determined to become successful painter. She not only achieved this goal but she also became an inspiring and legendary educator during 47 years of teaching drawing, design, and watercolor painting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she was awarded an honorary doctorate in May 1987. Among her students were Elizabeth Catlett and Alma Thomas.' Petite in stature, Jones has warm smile that dominates her expressive features. Whether formally dressed in furs, velvets, and silks, or covered by cotton smock behind her easel, she wears large copper pendant from Haiti representing the voodoo god of the forest, symbol of her ongoing link with Haitian and culture. Born in Boston in 1905, Jones remembers that as a little tot I was always drawing.2 Her mother, Carolyn Jones, worked in beauty shop and designed hats. Her father, Thomas Vreeland Jones, superintendent of large office building, went to law classes in the evening and became lawyer at 40. Each summer, Lois, her older brother John, and their mother escaped the smoke and tar of Boston to the ocean, daisies, and buttercups of Martha's Vineyard, where, Jones claims, her life in art really began. This was partly due to the influence of the black sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller (1877-1968),3 who also spent summers there. Fuller, who had studied with Rodin in Paris, utilized her African and AfricanAmerican heritage in her work. She advised Jones, If you want to be success in your career, you have to go to Paris. Jones began studying art at Boston's High School of Practical Arts and attended Saturday drawing classes at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. After her high school graduation in 1923 she won four-year scholarship to the Boston Museum School, where she was the only black student. Although she majored in design, she admired the watercolor paintings of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent and began her lifelong habit of carrying watercolor paints outdoors to depict the various moods of nature. Jones still considers watercolor a happy medium to relax with, as within four hours of concentrated work I can capture the essence of scenic view. After completing her studies at the Museum School, Jones applied for an assistantship there. She was turned