English: Biography: A renowned painter and watercolorist, Lois Jones showed a strong interest in art from an early age. Born in Boston, the daughter of Carolyn Dorida Adams and Thomas Vreeland Jones, she won a four-year scholarship to the Museum of Fine Arts School, graduating in 1927. In 1928 she studied at the Designers Art School also in Boston. Then she moved to North Carolina, where she taught physical education and was head of the art department at Palmer Memorial Institute for two years. It was in 1930 that she went to Howard University as an art teacher and while there earned an A.B. degree in art education; she continued at Howard as an instructor and later as Associate Professor of Design and Professor of Design and Watercolor. Receiving grants from the General Education Board in 1937 and 1938, she spent a year of study in Paris, at the Academie Julian, and a summer in Italy. A discussion with Alain Locke in the 1940s led her to paint Black subjects and begin her contributions to the "New Negro" movement. After her marriage in 1953 to Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, a former classmate at Columbia University and respected Haitian graphic artist, she began to paint works depicting Haitian life and landscapes. When Howard University awarded her a research grant in 1970 to study contemporary African art, she toured 11 countries and interviewed many African artists. She began to incorporate elements of African design into her painting. She has had more than 40 one-woman shows in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Haiti, and her paintings are in the permanent collections of more than 16 museums and galleries. Her many honors include decoration by the Haitian government in 1954 and election as a fellow of London's Royal Society of Arts in 1963.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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