Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art

The Paul R Jones Collection of African American Art, housed in the University Museums at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, comprises one of the most important collections of African American visual art dating from the 18th century up to the present.

Choosing artists for his collection, Jones sought to keep a strong theme of cultural pride while ensuring a variety of mediums and subjects to represent such messages. A common tool used by people from all different cultures and ethnicities, art serves as a vital form of communication. Many use it as a way of relaying one's culture from generation to generation. The Paul R Jones Collection serves as an example of such cultural communication: a strong theme of African American experiences and history resonate throughout each piece that Jones has selected for his exhibit. Despite the shared focuses, each artwork was chosen carefully for its ability to speak without words and convey emotional responses from its audience as well as its content and quality.

Paul R Jones' Biography

On June 1, 1928, Will and Ella Jones were blessed with a baby boy, Paul Raymond Jones. Jones grew up with his four sisters and caring parents in the town of Bessemer, Alabama. To the Jones family, education was the key to success, so it was decided that Paul R Jones would attend school somewhere in the North to pursue the best education possible at that time. After a trip to the World’s Fair in New York City, Ella Jones knew her son would attend school in New York.

By high school, Paul R Jones moved back home with his family. Jones used his athletic skills, self-discipline, and competitive nature to compete in track and football. Along with athleticism, Paul R Jones was an intelligent young man in high school. His intellect and athleticism landed him two separate scholarships for college.

Following high school, Paul R Jones enrolled in Alabama State University aspiring to earn a law degree. Unfortunately, because of the racial discrimination there, Jones was not encouraged to pursue a degree in law. Instead, he continued his education at Howard University, and afterwards he decided to return home again.

The first job Paul R Jones encountered at home was the position of Executive at the Interracial Committee of the Jefferson County Coordinating Council for Social Forces, allowing him to realize his political aspirations. After his first job, Jones worked in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service. Later, he served as a deputy director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand.

During the early 1960’s, Paul R Jones decided to purchase his first three paintings that formed the beginning of his collection. They were by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After collecting for a couple of years, Jones realized that African-American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever represented in the collections of museums. As the years passed, his collection of African-American art and his reputation grew. Jones' collection has been featured at several different museums over the course of his lifetime. Currently, the Paul R Jones Collection resides at the University of Delaware where it is a tool to educate and foster enjoyment.

works cited

* " [http://www.udel.edu/museums/jones/jones-pages05/about2.html The Paul R Jones Collection of African American Art.] " COLLECTOR & COLLECTION: The story of the Paul R Jones Collection of African-American Art. 2005. University Museums. Retrieved 2008-09-13.

The History of the Collection

Collector Paul R Jones grew up in Bessemer, Alabama, and at an early age was a victim to the hardships that African Americans suffered. As an African American college student, Jones was denied admission to law school as a result of the Jim Crow laws. Jones’ mother had introduced him to art and beauty, and after this educational setback in the early 1960s, Jones’ interest in the arts began to grow. Jones became increasingly interested in collecting artwork and picked up his first prints along a street in Atlanta--works by artists Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. Jones’ interest in collecting art grew even further after being exposed to many prints, so he decided that in order to collect art seriously, he was going to have to start gathering originals instead of copies.

The Paul R Jones Collection originated from Jones’ discovery that the many museums he had been visiting held few works by African Americans. Because Jones believed that these great artists were being overlooked, he decided that he would create a collection of works by a variety of African American artists. The current collection took over forty years to amass and contains works in a variety of media, representing over three hundred of the nation’s African American artists. At almost two thousand works, it is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of works by African American artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The collection reflects an array of subjects, styles, and materials, and it leaves the meaning and message open to interpretation.

Over the years, Jones’ small home in Atlanta became too small to hold all his collected works, so Jones decided to move the collection to a place with the necessary space. After much consideration, Jones decided that he would exhibit a large portion of his collection, the whole collection being too large for one space, at The University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware.

Because many of the artworks were created during a time when African Americans were discriminated against, the extensive collection gives the world an opportunity to look deep into African American culture and explore many points of view. In the words of Paul R Jones, “The artworks have been more to me than precious images created by talented men and women who, in many cases, created them in the face of tremendous personal challenges; they have been true companions-like members of my family-offering daily opportunities to learn about the thoughts, expressions, and ways of living of the makers.”

Works cited

A Century of African American Art : The Paul R Jones Collection / edited by Amalia K. Amaki. Newark, Delaware: The University Museum, University of Delaware and New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

A Selection of Artists of the Paul R Jones Collection

Biography of Tina Allen

Tina Allen was born in New York in 1955. Her father “Specs” Powell and her uncle inspired Allen to pursue a more artistic path in sculpture and painting. Allen spent many of her formative years in Grenada, where she met at the age of ten the American sculptor William Zorach, who recognized her talents. Allen is an internationally renowned sculptor and painter. Allen attended Visual Arts in New York and the University of Alabama. She continued her advanced studies at Pratt Institute in New York and the University of Venice, Italy. Her works have been shown in some of the most prestigious galleries in the world. Allen has shown two majors themes in her works, the Historical Body of the Representational Sculptures recording the contributions of the African Diaspora and Symbolic Abstractions with hints of figurative expressions growing out of the forms. Allen’s career took off in 1986 when she won a national contest that awarded her an $85,000 commission to create a nine and one-half foot statue of A. Phillip Randolph. In 1988, Allen moved to Los Angeles where she has produced many sculptures and paintings that reflect the Harlem Renaissance. Allen’s works have allowed her to travel the world so places such as, Africa, Europe, and Asia, Japan, South Africa, West Indies, New York City, and Mobile, Alabama. Allen has promoted heroic blacks overcoming the barriers of racial discrimination in employment in “Day’s End,” which connects her tributes to the anonymous black men and women whose collective efforts for centuries helped transform America. She has also focused on the reevaluation and appreciate of the black male, which is shown in “Proud Father and Son” and the Banjo Lesson.” Allen has promoted the contributions of African American women which is shown in “Ethiopia.”

Biography of Robert Colescott

African-American artist, Robert Colescott, was born in Oakland, California in 1925. He received his B.A. in art from the University of California, Berkeley in 1959. After gaining his B.A. in art he decided to continue his education at Berkeley and he obtained his M.F.A. in 1952. After graduating from Berkeley for the last time, Colescott moved to Paris where he studied with Fernand Leger. Robert Colescott will most likely be found crating art, referring to common stereotypes, stigmas, and race and gender.

Biography of David Driskell

David Driskell was born in 1931. Driskell, known for being an artist and a scholar, is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on African American art. Through five exhibition books, co-authored four others and more than forty published catalogues from exhibitions he curated, Driskell has contributed significantly to the study of the role of African American artists in society. In 1988, the University of Maryland established the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora. The Center honors Driskell’s four-year career as artist, educator, philanthropist, collector and art historian.

Biography of David Hammons

David Hammons was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1943. In 1964, Hammons attended Los Angeles Trade Technical City College. Two years later, he attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He is currently working and living in Brooklyn and Harlem, New York. Hammons is known for creating art that forces the viewer to confront cultural stereotypes and racial issues. He has been making art since the early 1970s, using materials such as grease, hair, barbecued ribs, cheap wine bottles, and basketball hooks. He preferred to show his art in city streets and in vacant lots rather than art galleries. His art has clearly been influenced by the Arte Povera and Dadaist movements of the early 20th century. Hammons has rarely exhibited his work in galleries in New York, but he has exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He received the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award.”

Biography of Edwin Harleston

Edwin Harleston was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1882. Harleston pursued his education at Avery Institute and Atlanta University graduating in 1904. He initially wanted to practice medicine at the Howard University by becoming a physician, but changed his mind and transferred to the School Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Around the 1920’s Edwin Harleston became an all around well known artist. Mainly his artwork consists of portraits, but sometimes he is caught using people and culture of a specific time era. Is portraits mainly concentrated on conveying his subject’s personality. Harleston decided to become a member of the Harmon foundation at the International House in New York, which presented the first all Black exhibition in the U.S. Edwin Harleston was known as one the “the most significant African-American artist of the 20th century.”

Biography of Chester Higgins Jr.

Well known photographer, Chester Higgins Jr., was born in 1946 in Alabama. Higgins attended Tuskegee University where P.H. Polk strongly influenced how he took photographs and inspired him to concentrate on African-Americans. Chester Higgins moved to New York City and began to take pictures for the New York Times after graduating college in 1970. Life, Time, Newsweek, and Ebony are just a few other magazines Higgins has photographed for. Along with taking pictures, Chester Higgins Jr. writes essay books such as Black Woman, Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging, and Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey. Higgins photographs have appeared in the Smithsonian Museum, New York State Museum, the Philadelphia African American Museum and many more throughout the course of his life.

Biography of Lonnie Holley

forthcoming. . .

Biography of Margo Humphrey

Margo Humphrey was born Oakland, California in 1942. She attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Painting and Printmaking. She completed her Masters degree in Printmaking at Stanford University. She is presently on the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland. She is perhaps best known for "The Last Barbecue", portraying the Last Supper from a unique perspective. Humphrey’s works are included in several important global permanent collections such as, The Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, The National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC., The Bradford Galleries, in London, England, The Museum of Modern Art, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, The National Gallery of Art, Lagos, Nigeria, The San Francisco Legion of Honor, The Margaret Pace Wilson Collection, in San Antonio, Texas, and The Dr. William H. Cosby and Camille Cosby Private Collection. Also, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Permanent Collection of the United States Information Agency Arts America Program, in Washington, D.C., and Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, England. She has received many fellowships and awards, which include: The James D. Pheland Award, two National Endowment of the Arts Fellowships, a Ford Foundation Fellowship and twice nominated for a Tiffany Fellowship for full tuition to Stanford University in 1971 and again in 1988 for an Artists Fellowship. A one year Fellowship in 1980 was awarded to Humphrey by the Ford Foundation for research through the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.

Biography of Amos "Ashanti" Johnson

Amos “Ashanti” Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1950. He called himself “Ashanti” because of his attraction for the Asante people of Ghana. His style, where representational imagery is seen as the best way of conveying cultural identity, follows the styles established by Charles White. Johnson is an alumnus of Syracuse University. His work appears private and public institutions abroad and in the permanent collections across the natioan such as, the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, Texas and High Museum in Atlanta, George.

Biography of Wilfredo Lam

forthcoming. . .

Biography of Stanley Zachery Rosenfeld

Stanley Zachary Rosenfeld was born on July 27, 1913. At an early age he began working with his father in the world of the marine photography. Rosenfeld attended New York University in Manhattan for two years until he began to work at the studio full time in the early 1930s. In 1939, Rosenfeld married Ruth Landesman and moved to Manhattan. There they had two sons, Richard and Jonathon. In World War II, he became a combat photographer in the Pacific. After his father’s death, Rosenfeld continued the business as M. Rosenfeld and Sons. Ruth Rosenfeld began assisting her husband not only in the office, but also out on the water in the 1960s. Ruth fell ill in the early 1970s and died in 1979. In 1984, after closing the studio and putting the collection in storage in 1981, Mystic Seaport bought his collection, which contains images from 1881 to 1981. He married Heather Hanley, an amateur photographer and travel writer, in 1986. Stanley’s work has allowed him to travel around the world to places such as, Europe, Haiti, Turkey, Scandinavia, the Caribbean, the Galapagos, Italy, the United States, and Canada. His collection contains between 200,000 and 250,000 images of a wide range of objects. Rosenfeld's book, A Century Under Sail, a tribute to black and white marine photography, was first published in 1984. His book covers a hundred years of maritime history photographic record. Stanley died on December 23, 2002.

Biography of Hughie Lee-Smith

Hughie Lee-Smith was born in Eustis, Florida in 1915. He went to school in Cleveland, Ohion and graduated from the Cleveland School of Arts. He served in the Navy during World War II where he completed a series of paintings called “The History of the Negro in the United States Navy.” He began exhibited his works in 1945 in Chicago. Soon after he began winning awards for his art such as, Detroit Institute Founders Prize (1953), National Academy of Design (four times), the Emily Lowe Award (1957), and the award from the American Society of African Culture (1960). In 1967, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design. He has been an instructor in art, the head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at Claflin University, and he has taught at Rex Goreleigh's Studio-on-the-Canal in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1953, he left the Navy and attended, as a student, to Wayne State University where he got his Bachelor of Arts.

Lee-Smith focused his painting on the loneliness of decaying urban life. He set his work in the aged neighborhood filled with old, isolated buildings. He peoples these wastelands with one, two, or three individuals: when they are alone they are seemingly unaware of their surroundings or so depressed by them that they stand doubly alone: when his individuals have companions, each is quite unaware of other presences, and moves alone in his private world. Lee-Smith was very good at depicting different types of textures into his work such as, the minutely details of non-organic objects-crumbling plaster, cement, wire, and wood contributes a kind of sharpness to the overall feeling of desolation.

Biography of Prentice Herman Polk

Prentice Herman Polk was born on November 25, 1898 in Bessemer Alabama. He was the youngest of four kids, being the only son of Jacob Prentice Polk and Christine Romelia Ward. Shortly after his father’s death in 1909, Christine Ward started Polk’s formal education in the public Hard School in Bessemer. In 1911, Polk was sent to Tuggle Institute, a subsidized boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama. Two years later, he returned home to help his mother support the family by working in the tailoring shop of William A. Freeman. In 1917, Polk enrolled at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute where he studied photography under C.M. Battey (1873-1927). There he became the principal musician or the Institute’s Band. Polk took his father’s middle name Prentice and was usually referred to by his friends and colleagues as “P.H.” In Chicago, he apprenticed for Fred Jenson’s photography studio for nearly two years. On January 12, 1926 Polk married Margaret Blanche Thompson. Many of his portraits taken between 1920 and 1950 act as personal and corporate narratives of accomplishments, positions, and status of African Americans in and around Tuskegee University. He understood the importance of photographic portraits in structuring both family and collective history. He soon became called “the Southern VanDerZee” for his extensive documentation of the African American life in and around Tuskegee4 and is buried at Tuskegee Universities cemetery. . He died on December 24, 198Some of his most famous portraits are of: Catherine Moton Patterson (1936), Margaret Blanche Polk (1946), and Eleanor Roosevelt with "Chief" Charles Alfred Anderson (1941).

Biography of Wendell A. White

Wendell A. White received a B.F.A from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a M.F.A in Photography from the Austin’s University of Texas. His work has been shown in museums, corporate collections, exhibitions, and publications. He has taught photography at the Cooper Union School of Art, School of Visual Arts and International Center for Photography. In 2003, he was selected to be a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to support his photography of black communities in rural areas and small towns in New Jersey.

Work cited

* Allen, Tina. “The Art of Tina Allen.” HGX. 2006. source
* Blum, Paul Von. “The Sculpture of Tina Allen.” Political Art. source
* “Chester Higgins Jr.” Biography. The History Makers. 28 Nov. 2006 source.
* “David Hammons.” Worldwide Corporation, New York, NY. 2006 source
* “Edwin Augustus Harleston.” The University of South Carolina-Aiken. 1999-2006. source
* “Hughie Lee-Smith.” Barewalls Interactive Art Inc., Sharon, MA. 3d-dali.com. 2000 - 2006 source
* Humphrey, Margo. “Biography.” University of Maryland. source
* “Margo Humphrey.” The Art Gallery at the University of the Maryland. 26 Nov. 2002. source
* Shoemaker, Kathryn and Meredith K.Soles. “P.H. Polk Chronology.” University Museum. 2003. source
* “Stanley Rosenfeld.” Global Cloud. Mystic Seaport. Mystic, CT. 1998-2006. source
* “Mr. Edwin A. Harleston.” 2006. Zoom Information Inc. 28 Nov. 2006 source.
* “Robert Colescott Biography.” Robert Colescott. 2004-2006. Fantasy Arts. 28 Nov. 2006 source.

Interview with Dr. Amaki

Dr. Amalia K. Amaki is currently a curator of the Paul R Jones Collection, a professor of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware, and an artist herself. She divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia and Newark, Delaware.

Born Linda Faye Peeks, Amalia Amaki changed her name due to her passion for writing and art at an early age. She majored in psychology and journalism at [http://www.gsu.edu/ Georgia State University] and received her B.A. in photography and art history at the University of Mexico. Dr. Amaki studied as an [http://polisci.emory.edu/ Emory University Foreign Study Fellow] and achieved her M.A. degree in modern European and American art and a Ph.D. in Twentieth-century American art and culture from [http://www.ila.emory.edu/ Emory University in the Institute of Liberal Arts] . She is also a member of the [http://www.collegeart.org/ College of Art Association] , [http://www.aaup.org/aaup American Association of University Professors] , Emory University Alumni Board of Governors, [http://www.thedcca.org/ Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts] , [http://www.high.org/ High Museum of Art] , [http://www.uga.edu/gamuseum/index.html Georgia Museum of Art] , and [http://www.spelman.edu/museum/ Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts] .

Her most current plans are to complete work on a couple of book projects: one is a single author text and the second is an edited anthology. She also co-curates an exhibition that opens in January (2007) at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and co-edited the accompanying text, both titled “Hale Woodruff, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and the Academy.” For the book, out in January 2007, Dr. Amaki contributed two of the six essays, one each on Woodruff and Prophet.

"Photo Credit: University of Delaware Public Relations." [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/amaki093003.html source]

;1. What drew your interests to the Paul R Jones Collection?

I have worked with the Paul R Jones Collection at the University of Delaware since 2001 when the official announcement was made from Mr. Jones regarding his gift of a portion of his collection to the university. I had previously worked with Paul Jones and various institutions and organizations putting exhibitions and programs together beginning in the mid 1980s. One of the most attractive things about the collection at that time (1980s) was its vastness–works by an array of artists, some very well known, others highly skilled though lesser known, and still others that were either very young or emerging because they had been relatively new in their pursuit of an art career. I was also attracted to the variety of media and stylistic approaches represented in the collection.

;2. What is your favorite piece, and why?

I love so many of the works in the collection that it is hard to emphasize one. I will mention a few with the understanding that they represent a much larger number of works that are especially appealing to me. They include:

1. Howardena Pindell’s mixed media work “Untitled #35 is an amazing piece from a rather large series of dot-based, assemblage/collage works. I am particularly drawn to the ways in which Howardena Pindell puts a personal twist on her incorporation of some of the basic tenants of color field painting, action painting, automatic writing, collage and assemblage together in a very cohesive yet traceable manner. There are also many hidden elements to the piece that contributes to the overall sense of privacy and mystery.

2. Charles White’s “John Henry” offers so many opportunities in a teaching environment to explore (1) art as a translator of the historical narrative in a single work of art versus a series of images following a linear reading pattern; (2) art as an impetus for the examination of myth versus fact-based narratives; (3) portraiture; and numerous other possibilities related to race and particularly the African American male presence (such as how he is portrayed, potential explanations for the nature of the portrayal, etc.).

3. David Hammons “Spade” is a favorite because of the sheer gutsy-ness, its simplicity, and the fact that it is so in-the-face of the viewer, most importantly in its discussions of the African American male in a way the conveys a sense of near urgency in its intersections of the psychological, sociological and political implications.

;3. What sort of impact does this collection have on the University of Delaware?

The Paul R Jones Collection has given the University of Delaware:

1. A powerful public relations tool, particularly in advancing the notion of achieving improved racial and ethnic diversity.

2. It affords the university faculty the opportunity to develop a different kind of teaching approach–some professors have taken great advantage of this, where the works in the collection are being infused in meaningful ways into the actual fiber and purpose of course planning and instruction.

3. It offers the entire university community a means through which to improve understanding about the varied experiences of African Americans

4. It offers students, faculty and staff means through which to become more familiar with African American thought, pressing issues within the African American communities, and the roles of visual expression as an important component of African American life.

5. It has set a standard for community outreach, outreach to public and private schools, programs for educators, etc.

6. The Paul R Jones Collection activities have become the model that is adopted by others (including University Gallery), it terms of how shows are presented, promoted and the nature of programs supporting exhibitions (signage on buildings, posters, bookmarks, etc.)

;4. What message does the current " [http://www.museums.udel.edu/jones/ One on One] " exhibit send to its audience?

“One On One” is an invitation for everyone to look at a work of art and:

1. Respect what they see based upon their own history, frames of reference, biases, limitations, advantages, and perception
2. Become capable of considering why they see what they see
3. Recognize that viewing a work of art is personal/singular and conversational at the same time–that their response, even if unspoken, establishes a dialogue with the work itself and the artist to a certain extent
4. There is no right or wrong way to experience art
5. Art is designed, in most cases, to evoke a variety of readings, interpretations and responses

" [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/mar/amaki052005.html Blue Lady by Amalia Amaki] "

"Photo Credit: University of Delaware Public Relations."

"Amalia Amaki speaks frequently about The Paul R Jones Collection, both on and off the campus."

"Photo Credit: University of Delaware Public Relations." [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/mar/personnel070605.html/ source]

For a full length biography of Amalia Amaki:
* [http://thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1256&category=artMakers History Makers]

For further articles regarding Amalia Amaki:
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/mar/amaki052005.html Exhibition of Amalia Amaki’s art set in Washington]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/mar/christi051805.html Paul Jones, Amalia Amaki honored at Christi gala]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/feb/amaki021506.html Works by Amalia Amaki featured at Spelman]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/amaki093003.html Amalia Amaki’s art featured at Wilmington Riverfront exhibit Oct. 11, 12]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/01/1/artist.html Artist, art historian prepares book on Paul Jones Collection]

External links

* [http://www.museums.udel.edu/jones/ The Paul R Jones Collection of African American Art web site] For more information about the Paul R Jones "One on One Exhibit" at the University of Delaware:
* [http://www.udel.edu/ University of Delaware]
* [http://www.museums.udel.edu/jones/ University of Delaware Paul R. Jones Exhibit]

For more information on exhibitions and museums at the University of Delaware:
* [http://www.museums.udel.edu/index.html University Museums of UD]

For more articles relating to The Paul R Jones Collection:
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/pjones033004.html King Photo Donated to Paul R Jones Collection]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/pjfla021104.html Florida Governor’s Mansion shows Paul R Jones Collection]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2003/loper032403.html Paintings by Edward Loper added to Paul R Jones Collection]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/feb/pjones022806.html Paul R Jones exhibit at Montana State]
* [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/dec/pjc121304.html Advisory board formed for Paul R Jones Collection]