Jesse Lott

Jesse Lott (1943 – July 24, 2023) was an American visual artist known for his wire and wood sculptures, papier mâché figures, and collages made from found materials within a style he called "urban frontier art".

Early life and education Jesse Lott was born in Simmesport, Louisiana, in 1943. He was African American. During the 1950s, his family relocated to Texas, eventually settling in Houston's Fifth Ward. He attended E.O. Smith Elementary School and Kashmere Gardens High School. In 1957, at the age of 14, he sold his first artwork, a painting. Lott said that this event marked the beginning of his professional art career.

At the time, people of color were only allowed to visit Houston's Fine Arts Museum on one specified day each week. Galleries, too, generally prohibited viewings. The exhibition of black artists' work was virtually unheard of.

Muralist John Biggers was an early mentor. Biggers was founding chairman of the art department at Texas Southern University (formerly Texas State University for Negroes). Following a trip to Africa, he visited area high schools, including Lott's, and expounded on art, specifically the role of the black artist. Biggers taught that African American artists should turn to the motherland rather than Europe for inspirational models.

While Lott was skilled at painting and drawing, he soon discovered his true gift, turning trash to treasure and combining it with the spirit of activism. In Collision: The Contemporary Art Scene in Houston, 1972–1985, author Pete Gershon writes, "Very much in line with the Black Arts Movement, Lott's work involved a kind of community-building social practice. It was common for him to hire a pack of loitering kids to dismantle a castoff bedspring and sort out its components. As Lott says, 'There's one kid that didn't become a juvenile delinquent that day...'" Robinson Galleries presented Relics of the Future, Part Two the following year.

In 1979, Lott's 9-foot, 200-pound figurative wire and rebar sculpture Zoroastera: Fire Spitter was included in Fire, a show of 100 Texas artists curated by James Surls for Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. At Surls' invitation Art in America editor Lucy Lippard covered the exhibit for the international magazine. Her review was measured, but would be instrumental in bringing nationwide attention to Texas artists.

On the role of the artist, Lott stated, "Artists are entrusted with a metaphysical vision. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That means that many words have been entrusted to those to whom God has given the ability to create. When a pebble hits a pool, it starts a wave that covers the whole pool. The pebble is the concept. An artist puts out a concept and the concept changes the consciousness of the viewer, leading to a positive change in the pattern of his activity."

"It's political," Lott said about this artmaking process, "Transforming trash into a classical figure is a political action. Rich people don't have time to go through the garbage - their job is to make the garbage. But when a mother of two has to buy cereal boxes for her kids, and she transforms those cereal boxes into paper dolls and sells them, she is entering a different economic system. Art is political when you use it to solve economic problems."

El Piñatero Method Another low cost technique Lott used for sculpting is known as El Piñatero Method because of its similarity to piñata making as layers of papier mâché are applied over frameworks (sometimes combined with discarded, reclaimed objects) to create human, animal, and other forms. Instead of wire armatures, he began with a paper or cardboard cone for the primary structure. Additional cones were employed by Lott to form the limbs, then more paper of all types and colors were layered on top to build the figures, which range from 3 inches to 10 feet tall. An exhibit on Project Row Houses is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Art League Houston Lifetime Achievement Award In 2016, Art League Houston named Lott the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Visual Arts.

While the Art League show ran, Lott also had work up at three other venues: Friendly Fire at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, From Space To Field at the SITE Gallery, and at another location as part of Houston Sculpture Month.

Jesse Lott: Art and Activism Lott is the subject of a 28-minute documentary Jesse Lott: Art & Activism released in 2017. The short was shot by students from the 14 Pews Film Academy and directed and edited by 14 Pews founder Cressandra Thibodeaux. The video won numerous national awards, including Best Short Documentary in both the International Black Film Festival and the Tulsa American Film Festival.

Personal life and death Lott was famously private about his personal life.