IF YOU GO* What: “Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color.”* When: Sunday through April 24.* Where: Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View.* Admission: $9.95 adult, $4.95 children.* Phone: 267-0968.* Website: www.huntermuseum.org
Born in Boston in 1905, Lois Mailou Jones was a student of art during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. An artist and educator, her works included textile, paintings and stained glass.
A retrospective of her work opens this weekend at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
“When this show came across our desk, we all agreed it was a really high-quality show, beautiful pieces, and the scholarship was really sound,” said public relations director Katrina Craven. “We always weigh whether we feel our visitors will enjoy the show, and we certainly think they will. The work is really lovely. She really did have an interesting career. She was working at an interesting time, when female artists and particularly African-American female artists weren’t necessarily the norm.”
Jones graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. When she first set out as a textile designer, a decorator told her that she couldn’t have designed a particularly good textile because she was a “colored girl.”