Galleries : Lois Mailou Jones : Credit where it is due
In collaboration with the Lois Mailou Jones Trust and Featherstone Center for the Arts, the Martha's Vineyard Museum is co-hosting an exhibit of Lois Mailou Jones's early work in textile design at the Featherstone Center for the Arts, August 17 through September 3.
A highly successful African American artist, Ms. Jones (1905 - 1998) called the Vineyard home. It is where she began her career as an artist, creating work that remains in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the National Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the White House. A professor at Howard University, she painted and exhibited worldwide.
Photo courtesy of Martha's Vineyard Museum
A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1927, Ms. Jones began her career as a highly successful textile designer before earning international recognition as a painter, scholar and teacher. Major manufacturers in Boston and New York purchased many of these designs, although credit was never given to Ms. Jones for her designs.
Appearing at the Sunday's opening, Robert W. Jones, Trustee of the Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust and nephew of Ms. Jones, will offer brief insights into her life. It marks the beginning of a series of events honoring her life and her work.
Wednesday, August 20 at 7 pm, Edmund Barry Gaither, Director and Curator of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists and longtime friend of Lois Mailou Jones, will discuss her work and life.
Tuesday, August 26 at 7 pm, Dr. Cheryl Findley, Professor of Art History and African American Studies at Cornell University, will speak about Ms. Jones's art within a wider art and historical context. A video of the life of Lois Mailou Jones, "Lois Mailou Jones: Fifty Years of Painting" and an audio slide program from oral history interviews with Ms. Jones will also be shown during the exhibit run. Artist Nick Thayer will conduct workshops for children inspired by Ms. Jones's textile art.
Signed silk screen prints and posters by Lois Mailou Jones will be available for purchase as well as books on the life and art of Lois Mailou Jones, to benefit the Featherstone Center for the Arts, the Martha's Vineyard Museum and the Lois Mailou Jones Trust.
An exhibit of Lois Mailou Jones textiles opens Sunday, August 17, 4-6 pm at Featherstone Center for the Arts. The show runs August 17-September 3, 12 noon - 4pm daily. Call Featherstone Center for the Arts 508 693 1850; Martha's Vineyard Museum 508 627 4441 x 113.
