LOIS MAILOU JONES: 60 Years of Happy Marriage to Her Art

Lois Mailou Jones: Sixty Years of Painting

at the Schlesinger Library

through December 11

Lois Mailou Jones first became interested in art at age seven when her parents gave her crayons and encouraged her to draw. More than 80 years later, she is still creating art, responding to the influence of different cultures and political events through her work.

Last week, the Radcliffe Office of the Arts' Learning from Performers program brought the Boston native home for the opening of her show "Lois Mailou Jones: Sixty Years of Painting" at the Schlesinger Library.

Jones is noted for the diversity of her work. Over the years, she has spent time in France, Haiti and a number of African countries--her paintings show the influence of these travels. The exhibit showcases examples of her different styles, from the Impressionistic "Interieur de L'Eglise St. Julien le Pauvre, 1938" to "Grand Bois d'Illet #2, 1992," a work that incorporates African symbols.

Born in Boston in 1905, Jones attended the Boston High School of Practical Arts and later received a scholarship to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. She credits Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent, whose work she discovered at the MFA, as being two of her major influences.

She had her first solo exhibition at age 17, and studied, taught and exhibited in the United States until 1937 when she received a General Education Board Fellowship to study in Paris.

The time she spent in France was very important to Jones' artistic development. She notes that she was influenced by Cezanne; the pieces "Antibes, 1986" and "Arreau-Hautes Pyrenees Village, 1949" reflect this in their sloping mountains and the application of light pigment in quick brush strokes.

In addition, Jones said that in France she was "shackle-free;" during her time there, she "forgot that she was Black" because the French people were so warm and accepting. She remembers a time in the United States when she had to ship her works to galleries instead of bringing them in person--she said her pieces would not have been hung if gallery staffs had been aware of her race.

The "double handicap" of being a Black woman has not stopped Jones from producing a remarkable body of work. She is notable in that she has seen her own pieces become famous in her lifetime. She has works hanging in the permanent collections of--among other museums--the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MFA and even the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, where she once heard a museum guard say that the work of a Black artist would never hang there.

Jones feels a responsibility as a prominent Black artist to take a stand against racial discrimination. Jones predicts that her 1944 painting "Mob Victim" will one day be famous. This painting depicts the lynching of a Black man in the South; she painted it in response to a series of lynchings in the 1940s.

Similarly, a piece she hopes to begin soon will deal with the Haitian boat people who recently tried to emigrate to the United States but were sent back to Haiti.

In addition to being an inspiring artist, Jones was a dedicated teacher for over 40 years. Jones wanted to share her international experience with her students at Howard University. In 1962, she initiated the first student trip to France, so her students could see first hand the paintings and buildings they had studied in art history.

Although she no longer teaches, Jones still cares about aspiring artists, advising them to "marry [their] art." She thinks that choosing a good art school, meeting artists, seeing exhibitions and dedicating oneself to art in every way possible is necessary for success. She notes that such dedication is difficult but that "it was worth it, what I put into it."

Jones also recognizes the importance of travel and exposure to different cultures as being a means of opening oneself to diverse influences. She advises everyone she talks to about her work to "love people."

Jones conveys this love of people, respect for other cultures and deep sense of her own heritage through her art as powerfully as she does in person. The pieces in the exhibition at the Schlesinger trace the development of a remarkable body of work over an equally remarkable life.