Day 18 Black History Month 2021 - Lois Mailou Jones

Lois Mailou Jones (November 1905 – June 1998)

For day 18 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Lois Mailou Jones, an American artist, painter and educator, who was the first African American to graduate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Her career spanned over seven decades and reflected various artistic styles, from traditional landscapes to African themed abstraction.

Her career as an educator started almost immediately after graduating from college. She ended up leaving Boston after the Director at the Museum of Fine Arts refused to hire her, telling her to find a job in the South where, “her people lived.” She ended up taking a job as a prep-school teacher at Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina and then would eventually join Howard University in Washington D.C. as a professor of design and painting until she retired from academia in 1977.

Her work is on display in museums all over the world. Permanent collections are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, The National Palace in Haiti, as well as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

“Mine is a quiet exploration – a quest for new meanings in color, texture and design. Even though I sometimes portray scenes of poor and struggling people, it is a great joy to paint.” – Lois Mailou Jones