‘Century of African American Art’ on view until June

9:42 a.m., Dec. 16, 2004--A major exhibition drawn from the Paul R. Jones Collection, which is among the oldest, largest and most comprehensive collections of works by 20th-Century African American artists in the world, continues through the 2004-05 academic year at the University of Delaware.

“A Century of African American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection,” features 101 significant works by 66 artists, including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Henry Ossawa Tanner, James Van Der Zee, Carrie Mae Weems and Hale Woodruff. Also included are the works of emerging artists such as Aimee Miller, Cedric Smith, D.H. Caranda-Martin and Michael Ellison.

The main exhibition space is in the newly renovated Mechanical Hall, home of the Paul R. Jones Collection, with additional works on view in the University Gallery in adjacent Old College.

The University Museums will close at 4 p.m., Friday, Dec. 17, for the holidays and resume regular hours at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 4. Regular hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Wednesdays; and 1-4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays.

The art objects represent the range of visual expression in the collection housed at UD, and the exhibition is designed to provide an opportunity for careful study of the interaction among works, individual images, the artists who created them, as well as the social and historical contexts that engendered them, according to Amalia Amaki, curator of the collection.

“The exhibition facilitates examinations of four issues in American art: portraiture and realism in relation to abstract expressionism, the implications of color, the role of narrative and the concept of multiple originals,” Amaki said.

“In so doing, efforts are made to ‘de-race’ African American art,” she said, “not to strip the work of its idiomatic cultural footing but rather to situate it within the larger picture of the nation’s history and cultural traditions. The eclectic selections allow viewers to self-examine while engaging the works presented.”

Library, color lithograph, by Jacob Lawrence, 1978

Jones, a business executive and former federal administrator, first began collecting works by African American artists in the early 1960s. He gained an affinity for the beauty of art from his parents while growing up in an iron ore mining camp in Bessemer, Ala., and began his collection by purchasing three prints on a street corner and framing them himself.

Eventually, more than 1,500 works filled Jones’s home, taking up nearly all of the wall space and spilling over into closets and drawers. He came to realize the collection required a permanent home in an institution that could not only exhibit the work but conserve it, use it in academic programs, work cooperatively with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and use leading-edge technology to digitize the works for online viewing by as wide an audience as possible.

He turned to the University of Delaware and, in 2001, announced the gift of the Paul R. Jones Collection, citing the institution's significant resources to professionally conserve and exhibit the vast array of paintings, drawings, photographs, lithographs and sculpture.

Today, the collection is housed in UD’s historic Mechanical Hall, which recently underwent a $4.6 million facelift to provide appropriate space for storage, conservation, academic endeavors and exhibition space.

In March 2003, Jones was named one of the Top 100 Collectors in America by the magazine Art & Antiques and he was presented an honorary doctor of humane letters degree by UD at New Student Convocation on Aug. 30.

For additional information on the exhibition, see the University Museums web site at [www.museums.udel.edu/jones/index5.1.html].

Article by Neil Thomas
Photo illustration by Rich Dunoff and Barbara Broge

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