Jones Collection exhibition a hit in Delaware, now at Spelman College

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9:31 a.m., Sept. 7, 2005--The popular inaugural exhibition of the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art at the University of Delaware’s Newark campus, which was on display throughout the 2004-05 academic year, drew collectors, artists, art lovers and representatives from other universities, as well as members of the general public from all parts of the country.

That inaugural exhibit, “A Century of African American Art: Selections From The Paul R. Jones Collection,” has now traveled to Atlanta, where it opens on Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

“I’m particularly pleased to see that it is now a reality,” Jones said of the collaborative effort behind the exhibition. “It’s a new day for education, a new day for art and a new day for academic collaboration between the best minds among faculty and students.”

Jones said the exhibit at Spelman is the fulfillment of his dream to not only collect art but also to share it with the academic community, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while promoting interaction between various academic disciplines.

For art lovers in the Delaware area, another exhibit, “Abstract and All That: Selected Works from the Paul R. Jones Collection,” an exhibit of 27 artworks by 17 modern abstract African-American artists, will be on free public display from Sept. 9-Dec. 9 in the Mechanical Hall Galleries at the University of Delaware.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Ellen Banks, Wadsworth Jarell, Alonzo Davis, Michael Ellison, Adger Cowans, Sam Gilliam, Floyd Coleman, Evangeline Montgomery, Hayward Oubre and Leo Twiggs. Included are paintings, prints, constructions, mixed media and batik works.

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“This particular examination of images that extend beyond representation are only a part of the broader holdings in the Paul R. Jones Collection, and it merely scratches the surface of potential investigations of the implications of abstraction as an expressive tool for artists nationally, culturally and individually,” Amalia Amaki, curator of the exhibition and of the Paul R. Jones Collection, said.

“Much can be learned from an objective consideration of the various creative processes applied from the perspective of the personal expressive choices of the artists and as a means to identifying, understanding and interpreting the powerful implications of the work relative to aesthetics of the African Diaspora as well as Euro-America,” she said.

The Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art is among the pre-eminent collections of works by 20th-Century African American artists. The collection was given to the University in 2001 by Jones, an Atlanta businessman.

Hours for “Abstract and All That” are 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays (open until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays), and 1-4 p.m., Saturdays. Mechanical Hall is located behind Old College, off North College Avenue in Newark.

For more information, contact Mechanical Hall Galleries at (302) 831-8088 or visit the web site at [www.museums.udel.edu].

Article by Martin Mbugua

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