Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art
Marietta, GA
770-528-1444
http://www.mariettasquare.com
The Paul Jones Collection: Art and Everyday
Life
The Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art will present the exhibition "The
Paul Jones Collection: Art and Everyday Life" from Wednesday, September
22 through Sunday, November 7, 1999. Over sixty works of paintings, sculptures,
and works on paper, including Romare Bearden's Island Scene, will
be on exhibition at the Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art. The exhibition will
be organized in four distinct areas: Expressive Abstraction and Fields of
Color, Figurative Abstraction, Realism, and Director's Choice - The Series.
The culmination of over thirty years of acquisitions, the Paul Jones Collection
is one of the largest private holdings of African-American art in existence.
"This
exhibition presents sixty-four works covering a range of scenes, subjects,
and issues addressed by artists during the second half of the 20th century,"
emphasized Paul Jones, the owner. "Whether literal or not, an overriding
consistency lies in the artist's attentiveness to aspects of daily life.
Reflecting the variety of styles that define the eclecticism of the period,
a cross-section of approaches and points of view of artists is presented."
Featured in the exhibition are social realism works by
Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Benny Andrews and the hard-edge abstract
painting of Al Smith and James Little.
"It is well-known and documented," according
to Alexander Gaudieri, director of the Marietta / 
Cobb Museum of Art,"that such masters as Picasso
and Matisse drew information from and were influenced by African art. It
is also well-known and documented that such masters as Romare Bearden and
Jacob Lawrence were strongly influenced by the same factors. It is intriguing
in this collection to see the play and tension resulting from these factors."
Paul R. Jones, a businessman and former government official,
made an early decision in his 
collecting to support the younger and emerging artists
with the African-American 
sector as the primary focal area. His collection,
which consists of more than 850 works by nearly 200 artists from diverse
backgrounds, offers an overview of concerns and statements from a spectrum
of 20th century artists. The collection works represent a diversity in media
including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and mixed
media. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Amalia Amaki.
Images from top to bottom: Amos "Ashanti" Johnson, Original
Man, pastel on paper, 1968, 35 x 29 inches; Benjamin Britt, We Two,
oil on canvas. 1968, 24 x 34 inches; Jacob Lawrence, The Library,
1978, color lithograph, 24 x 28 inches; Romare Bearden, Island Scene,
1984, watercolor, 21 x 17 inches; Jimmy Mosley, Humanity #2, 1968,
watercolor, 20 x 36 inches.
Read more about the Marietta/Cobb
Museum of Art in the Resource Library
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited in this article please see America's
Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 10/26/10
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
The Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art will present the exhibition "The
Paul Jones Collection: Art and Everyday Life" from Wednesday, September
22 through Sunday, November 7, 1999. Over sixty works of paintings, sculptures,
and works on paper, including Romare Bearden's Island Scene, will
be on exhibition at the Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art. The exhibition will
be organized in four distinct areas: Expressive Abstraction and Fields of
Color, Figurative Abstraction, Realism, and Director's Choice - The Series.
The culmination of over thirty years of acquisitions, the Paul Jones Collection
is one of the largest private holdings of African-American art in existence.
