LOÏS MAILOU JONES (1905 - 1998) Esquisse for Symbols, D’Afrique II.

LOÏS MAILOU JONES (1905 - 1998)
Esquisse for Symbols, D’Afrique II.

Acrylic on wove paper, 1983. 304x203 mm; 12x8 inches. Signed and dated in acrylic, lower right. From the Africa Series.

Provenance: acquired from the Corcoran Gallery of Art Auction, Washington, DC; private collection, Illinois (1996).

This vibrantly colored work on paper is an example of the artist's body of work inspired by her trips to Haiti and from West African imagery. Large canvases like Mère du Senegal, 1985 and Initiation Liberia, 1983, in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, are other examples of Jones' use of the grid composition for symbols and figuration. Jones took her first trip to Haiti in the summer of 1954 with the invitation of President Paul E. Magliore for his portrait commission. She made many subsequent annual trips with her Haitian husband Pierre-Noël. Jones continued to have painting trips and exhibitions there after his death in 1982 through the 1990s. Hanzal p. 127.