The Paul R. Jones Collection Returns to Atlanta
for a Limited Time
Atlanta (Aug. 11, 2005) The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art presents A Century of African American Art: Selections From The Paul R. Jones Collection, an exhibition organized and circulated by the University of Delaware.
Atlanta-based art collector Paul R. Jones has amassed one of the oldest, largest and most-comprehensive holdings of African American art. Buying paintings, prints, photographs and sculpture for more than four decades, he has acquired more than 1,500 works, many by well-known artists including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Betye Saar, James VanDerZee, Carrie Mae Weems and Hale Woodruff.
While the collection spans the first decade of the 20th century through the present, most were created after 1960. Also included are the works of Atlanta-based artists Jim Alexander, Aimee Miller, Cedric Smith, and Larry Walker. Selections from the Jones Collection will be on view Sept. 8 – Dec. 10, 2005, at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.
(Image: Ernest Crichlow, Untitled, 1985)
According to Dr. Amalia Amaki, curator of the Paul R. Jones Collection, the objects in the collection represent the range of visual expression and provide an opportunity for careful study of the interaction between works, individual images, the artists who created them, as well as the social and historical contexts that engendered them. “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—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.
In March 2003, Jones, a businessman and former federal administrator, was named one of the “Top 100 Collectors” in the magazine Art & Antiques. 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 collecting works by African-American artists in the early 1960s. Jones began his collection by purchasing three prints on a street corner and framing them himself. Jones said he enjoyed having the art on the walls of his home and soon decided it would be even more rewarding to collect original works, with a focus on those by fellow African Americans.
A pioneer in the field, he visited many art museums and galleries and found that African-American artists were greatly underrepresented. As one of the few collectors of such works at the time, Jones often found himself taking on the role of social worker by providing artists their next meal or month’s rent through his purchases. As such, he developed close personal relationships with many of the artists whose works are now included in the collection. Eventually, the more than 1,500 works filled Jones’ home, taking up nearly all of the wall space and spilling over into closets and drawers.
In 2001 Jones announced he would donate a significant portion of his collection to the University of Delaware, citing the institution's significant resources to professionally conserve and exhibit the vast array of paintings, drawings, photographs, lithographs and sculpture. He stipulated that the works must be made available for scholarly research and accessible to historically black colleges and universities. An institutional partnership that was established in 2001 between Spelman College and the University of Delaware makes this presentation of the Paul R. Jones Collection possible.
John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods is the principal sponsor of Spelman College’s presentation of A Century of African American Art: Selections From the Paul R. Jones Collection.
Special Exhibition-related Events: Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 at 6:30 p.m.: Opening Reception and Gallery Walk by Dr. Amalia Amaki, Curator of the Paul R. Jones Collection and Assistant Professor of Art, Art History and Black American Studies at the University of Delaware
Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 6:30 p.m.: Conversation with the Collector (organized in partnership with Atlanta Celebrates Photography):
Museum Information: The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is the only museum in the nation that focuses on works by and about women of the African Diaspora. Since it was established in 1996, the Museum has received awards from prestigious organizations including The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the Museum Loan Network, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Peter Norton Family Foundation. In July 2005 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified it as one of Atlanta’s “Fabulous Five Museums.”
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Museum is closed Sunday, Monday, holidays and during Spelman College breaks. The Museum is located on the first floor of the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed.D. Academic Center. For more information about the Museum and its programs, please call (404) 270-5607 or visit museum.spelman.edu.
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Sunday, August 14th 2005 at 2:10PM
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