A Celebration of Great African-American Artists of the 20th Century

Born in Boston, Lois Mailou Jones attended Howard University, the Designers Art School of Boston, Harvard University, and the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She went on to teach at Howard for nearly five decades. During the course of her long career, she has made the transition in her work from French Impressionism to African-inspired abstraction. In the 1930s she studied art in France, where she adopted the native tradition of painting outdoors.

Affiliation: Howard University

Les Clochards, Montmartre Etching Lois Mailou Jones began her art career in the 1920s, depicting the everyday life of Southern African-Americans in portraits and landscapes. This interest in ordinary activities is evident in Les Clochards, Montmartre, an etching delineating hoboes on a Paris street. Clustered around a park bench, the raggedy men keep wine bottles at their feet. This sketch appears to have been brought together in a moment of inspiration.

Romare Bearden
Selma Burke
Elizabeth Catlett
Alex Corbbrey
Sam Gilliam
Paul F. Keene, Jr.
Gwen Knight-Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Samella Lewis
Charles White
Hale Woodruff

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