Lawrence Arthur Jones

Lawrence Arthur Jones (1910-1996) was an American artist and printmaker. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jones spent most of his career as an art teacher in Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi. He was a contemporary of the prominent black artists Charles White and Eldzier Cortor. Jones's most notable accomplishment is his establishment of a fine arts program at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Jones grew up fairly poor, but from an early age he displayed a keen talent for drawing. In high school, Jones attended a segregated school that was underfunded and did not have an art department. However, despite Dunbar High School's deficient program, Lawrence found artistic opportunity drawing charts, sketches, and decorations for the high school. His community in Lynchburg was able to raise about 700 dollars. Jones attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1934 to 1936 and befriended the accomplished artists and fellow Chicago Institute students Charles White, Frank Neal, and Eldzier Cortor.

Teaching career

Dillard University Jones did not complete his degree at the Art Institute of Chicago and left to teach painting at Dillard University in New Orleans in 1936. Seated Man with Suitcase, 1937, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Ghetto, Maxwell Street, 1937, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Street Workers Resting, 1937, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Hull House, Chicago, 1937, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Poland '46, 1946, National Gallery of Art