Lawrence A. Jones
Seated Man With a Suitcase (1937), Etching
Born:
Died:
Biography
Lawrence Arthur Jones was a twentieth-century African-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.
Though Jones is best known as an arts educator, his work is present in a number of important institutions and museums. Many of his murals on campuses throughout the South still remain. His collective works feature prints, paintings, and murals that focus on African-American history in the United States.
Connection to the Spencers
In 1983, eight years after Anne Spencer's death, Lawrence A. Jones painted a portrait of Anne and Edward Spencer in posthumous gratitude for their mentorship in his youth. It currently hangs in the dining room of the Anne Spencer museum.
