Suzanne Jackson (artist)

Last updated
Suzanne Jackson
Suzanne Jackson at Wormsloe 2018 (cropped).JPG
Suzanne Jackson at Wormsloe Historic Site, Savannah, Georgia 2018
Born (1944-01-30) January 30, 1944 (age 80)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Other namesSuzanne Fitzallen Jackson, Suzanne Jackson Odùsolú [1]
Education San Francisco State University (BA),
Yale University (MFA)

Suzanne Jackson (born 1944) [2] [1] is an American visual artist, gallery owner, poet, dancer, educator, and set designer; with a career spanning five decades. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Since the late 1960s, Jackson has dedicated her life to studio art with additional participation in theatre, teaching, arts administration, community life, and social activism. Jackson's oeuvre includes poetry, dance, theater, costume design, paintings (both two- and three-dimensional), prints, and drawings.

Contents

Jackson has spent time throughout her career teaching students and influencing future generations of artists and culture creators, as well as building and participating in close-knit art communities with peer artists and thinkers. She worked in Los Angeles during the 1960s to 1980s, founding Gallery 32, and exhibiting additional work at the Ankrum Gallery. During the 1980s she lived in Idyllwild, California teaching and creating art. She also worked at Yale University, and in New York and Philadelphia in the 1990s. She worked in the Savannah, Georgia art community, from 1996 to 2009.

Early life and education

Jackson was born in 1944 in Saint Louis, Missouri. [2] [1] Her family moved to San Francisco, California, when she was nine months old. [2] Jackson lived in San Francisco until she was eight years old, after which she was raised in the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, from 1952 to 1961. [3] She graduated from Monroe Catholic High School in 1961. [3] As a teenager in Alaska, she became a member of the National Audubon Society which influenced some of the content of her work from a young age. [4] She was also the first African American to attend the National 4-H Congress in Chicago in 1960, which helped her receive scholarships and allowed her to attend college. [3] She received the World Peace, Humane Society, and Kindness to Animals scholarship from The International Latham Foundation, the Banff School of Fine Arts Scholarship, the Standard Oil Scholarship, and National Home Study Art Course.

Jackson attend San Francisco State University (SFSU), where she studied both art and ballet, eventually receiving a BA degree in painting. [5] She worked at San Francisco State University alongside San Francisco Bay Area artists and teachers, including Charles White. [6] While at SFSU, Jackson installed exhibitions at the campus art gallery and taught art at St. Stephen's Catholic School. [5]

She later completed an MFA degree in 1990 from the School of Drama, Yale University, specializing in theater design. [5]

Career

1960s–1970s

After college Jackson toured South America with a ballet company [7] and later returned to California to settle in Echo Park. [5] Upon returning to California, Jackson took a drawing class at Otis Art Institute with Charles White, where she began to connect with other California artists such as Dan Concholar, Alonzo Davis, and Timothy Washington. [8] In 1968, she opened Gallery 32, which operated for two years and which Jackson funded herself. [5] Jackson held several solo exhibitions during the 1970s at Ankrum Gallery, which was run by actress-turned-gallerist Joan Wheeler Ankrum and actor William Challee. [9] Jackson produced artists books of poetry and painting, "What I Love" (1972) and "Animals" (1978). (see Poetry)

“When Bernie [Casey] brought to the gallery several of Suzanne’s paintings, I was immediately struck with the freshness and originality of her work. It is most unusual to find so young an artist with a valid philosophical statement (and to communicate it successfully). Her feelings about her blackness are expressed in somewhat symbolic terms, and her world of fantasy, love and hope is revealed to the viewer in a very refreshing style… She very well may be the first Black woman in America to make a truly important contribution to art.” -- Joan Ankrum (1/5/1974) [10]

1980s–1990s

In 1981, Jackson was first introduced to Savannah, Georgia, through an invitation to be a visiting artist with Savannah College of Art and Design through the recommendation of Bernie Casey. Additionally, in 1981, Jackson's work was included in the exhibition “Forever Free: African American Women” which traveled to the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. Jackson lived in Idyllwild, California, from 1981 to 1985 and was on faculty as a Visiting Artist at the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts (1981–1982), and chair of the Fine and Performing Arts at the Elliott-Pope Preparatory School (formerly Desert Sun School) (1982–1985).

In 1987, Jackson relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, to attend Yale University, pursuing a master's degree under the tutelage of Ming Cho Lee for scenography. She worked as a freelance scenic and costume designer moving throughout the region; until taking a post at St. Mary's College of Maryland as a scenographer and assistant professor from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, Jackson moved full-time to Savannah, Georgia, to teach at Savannah College of Art and Design [11] as professor of painting, where she taught full-time until 2009.

2000s–present

Jackson officially retired from SCAD in 2009, but Jackson remained as a part-time and adjunct professor until 2013. Additionally, Jackson taught introductory art history courses, including African American Art History at Savannah State University in 2013–2014 school year. Jackson has remained an active member of the Savannah artistic community and continues to create and exhibit her work. Jackson co-hosts a weekly radio show featuring jazz and conversation, called Listen Hear on WHCJ 90.3 Savannah State University Radio, alongside Ike Carter, Jerome Meadows, Tom Van de Ven, Lisa Jackson and Carla Curran, PhD. In 2019 Jackson was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant. [12]

Artistic practice

Suzanne Jackson has had an extensive career an emphasized the importance of living the lifestyle of an artist, in her words, to be an artist is to solve problems as opposed to create images. She states, “I'm not an artist yet. I'm a painter. And I draw, and I work in theater as an "artist person," in quotes. But to become an artist takes a whole lifetime.” [3] Throughout her career, Jackson has looked to nature for inspiration, she has consistently related blackness to nature. [3] Her work has celebrated blackness through the representation of black bodies without an overtly political message.

Visual arts

Jackson has worked in a variety of visual media including works on paper, works on canvas, and Monoprints. Her works on paper include both watercolors and drawings from throughout her career. Jackson has worked mostly with acrylic paint, her earliest paintings on canvas were with acrylic paint layered, the way one would layer oils paints. She stated, “the imagery that everybody has sort of become familiar with, with the really strong white background and the sort of washy layers and layers of paint—that basically is kind of an old masters technique of layering the color for translucency. It's like the layers and layers of color build a depth in the painting. And some of the paintings, as thin as the color looks, there could be a hundred and fifty layers of color on each of my paintings.” [3] The 1990s marked a shift in her work as she began to experiment with different combinations of media. As her style progressed, Jackson began to forego the canvas in favor of netting as a substrate. She uses Novacolor brand acrylic gels to create 3-dimensional hanging works held together by fabric, papers, found objects, leaves, and or various netting. [13]

Her visual art work is included in public museum collections including at the Museum of Modern Art, [14] California African American Museum, [15] the Indianapolis Museum of Art, [16] and the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

Theater and costume design

Jackson graduated from Yale in 1990 and traveled the Northeast region (Connecticut, New York, and Philadelphia) as well as parts of California (Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area) working as a freelance Scenic and Costume Designer. Her costume designs were included in the exhibition Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design, at the Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York. Among other regional theatre credits, Jackson's work includes:

Dance

Jackson studied ballet and choreography at university, while a student she was a member of the Pacific Ballet Company (1961–66). Following graduation from college, Jackson participated in a State Department musical theatre tour of South America with Music Theatre U.S.A., and upon returning, Jackson was an instructor of dance and art at Watts Towers Art Center in Los Angeles from 1968 to 1969. From 1982 to 1985, Jackson was the chair of the fine arts department of the Elliot‑Pope Preparatory School, Idyllwild, California, where she choreographed performances including Oliver!, Grease , and the Cosmic Festival.

Poetry

Jackson's poetry has been mentored by the Cave Canem Foundation, Lucille Clifton, St Mary's Women's Writing Group, and the International Women's Writing Guild. Jackson's published artist books featuring her poetry and paintings are “Animal,” and “What I Love.” Jackson's poetry and drawings are included in Cave Canem Anthologies; “the ringing ear: Black Poets Lean South,” 2007, I, II, and IV, 1996–99; Avatar 25, 1996; Potomac Review, Winter 1996; In the Valley of the Moon, International Women's Writing Guild, 1994.

Several of her Artist Statements are written in verse:

MY ART DEALS WITH REALITY

VERSUS FANTASY--- ALONENESS

VERSUS LONLINESS… WHAT I

PAINT ATTEMPTS TO EXPRESS THE

CONFLICTS WITHIN THE MIND,

CONFLICTS OF CHOICES--- OF LOVES,

---OF SENSITIVITIES SEARCHING,

ORDERING, “FREEING” ONESELF

TOWARD SOME CONTINUOUS

CYCLE OF REDISCOVERING WHO,

IN FACT, I MIGHT REALLY BE.

--Statement from Suzanne Jackson’s book, What I Love (1970)

Many associate Jackson's name with Gallery 32, an art gallery she ran in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles from 1968 to 1970, dedicated to fostering a supportive artist community. [2] [17] Gallery 32 was inspired by artist Charles White's philosophy that art could be an effective vehicle for community activism and social change. [18] Seeking to replicate Jackson's previous experiences of San Francisco bohemianism, Gallery 32 functioned less as a business than as a place for the exchange of ideas and philosophies. Jackson funded the gallery herself, largely with money she earned from teaching. The gallery became an important venue, hosting discussions, poetry readings, and fund-raisers for social causes, and exhibiting work that demonstrated strong political and civic engagement. [5] [18] She aimed to make art from black artists with black themes accessible for all members of the community. [3] It quickly became one of the few art spaces in Los Angeles to exhibit emerging African American artists such as Gloria Bohanon, Emory Douglas, David Hammons, Betye Saar, and Timothy Washington. Among the organizations for which the gallery hosted fundraisers were the Black Arts Council, the Black Panther Party, and the Watts Towers Arts Center children's arts program. One of the gallery's important exhibitions was the 1970 Sapphire Show, the first Los Angeles survey of African American women artists. Gallery 32 played a vital role in the progressive struggles of the period while contributing to the diverse art scene of Los Angeles. [5] The remaining artworks and ephemera have been promised to the Getty Research Institute per the artist's request.

Teaching

Exhibitions

Below is a select list of notable exhibitions by Jackson.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betye Saar</span> American artist (born 1926)

Betye Irene Saar is an American artist known for her work in the medium of assemblage. Saar is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker. Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, which engaged myths and stereotypes about race and femininity. Her work is considered highly political, as she challenged negative ideas about African Americans throughout her career; Saar is best known for her artwork that critiques anti-Black racism in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samella Lewis</span> American art historian (1924–2022)

Samella Sanders Lewis was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association (CAA) in 2021.

“Art is not a luxury as many people think – it is a necessity. It documents history – it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.” – Dr. Samella Lewis

Mildred Jean Thompson was an American artist who worked in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and photography. Critics have related her art to West African textiles and Islamic architecture; they have also cited German Expressionism, music and Thompson's readings in astronomy, spiritualism and metaphysics as important artistic influences. She also wrote and was an associate editor for the magazine Art Papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorser Feitelson</span> American painter

Lorser Feitelson (1898–1978) was an artist known as one of the founding fathers of Southern California–based hard-edge painting. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Feitelson was raised in New York City, where his family relocated shortly after his birth. His rise to prominence occurred after he moved to California in 1927.

Joan Wheeler Ankrum was an American film actress and founder of the Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Malaika Favorite is an American visual artist and writer whose art work can be found in major collections in the U.S. She works mainly in oil, acrylic, and watercolor and has carried out experiments with folded canvas and the written word as another dimension of a painting's text. Her provocative paintings and sculpture pieces emanate as much from her personal history as it does from the wider world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camille Billops</span> American sculptor and filmmaker

Camille Josephine Billops was an African-American sculptor, filmmaker, archivist, printmaker, and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tameka Norris</span> American artist

Tameka Norris, also known as T.J. Dedeaux-Norris and Meka Jean, is an American visual and performing artist. Norris uses painting, sculpture, and performance art to create work about racial identity and the simultaneous visibility and invisibility of blackness through cultural appropriation in modern society. Her work critiques the presence of the Black body in the history of painting and fine art.

"Where We At" Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA) was a collective of Black women artists affiliated with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It included artists such as Dindga McCannon, Kay Brown, Faith Ringgold, Carol Blank, Jerri Crooks, Charlotte Kâ (Richardson), and Gylbert Coker. Where We At was formed in the spring of 1971, in the wake of an exhibition of the same name organized by 14 Black women artists at the Acts of Art Gallery in Greenwich Village. Themes such as the unity of the Black family, Black female independence and embodiment, Black male-female relationships, contemporary social conditions, and African traditions were central to the work of the WWA artists. The group was intended to serve as a source of empowerment for African-American women, providing a means for them to control their self-representation and to explore issues of Black women's sensibility and aesthetics. Like AfriCobra, a Chicago-based Black Arts group, the WWA was active in fostering art within the African-American community and used it as a tool of awareness and liberation. The group organized workshops in schools, jails and prisons, hospitals, and cultural centers, as well as art classes for youth in their communities.

Laylah Ali (born 1968) is an American contemporary visual artist. She is known for paintings in which ambiguous race relations are depicted with a graphic clarity and cartoon strip format. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and is a professor at Williams College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doyle Lane</span> African-American ceramist

Doyle Lane (1923–2002) was an African-American ceramist known for his innovative, tactile glazes. His work ranged from delicate vases and ceramic sculptures to large scale clay paintings and mosaics. Lane maintained a studio in the El Sereno district of East Los Angeles. He exhibited his work at Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park (1968) and Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard, both notable centers for African American Art in Los Angeles in the mid-twentieth century.

Dale Brockman Davis is a Los Angeles–based African-American artist, gallerist and educator best known for his assemblage sculpture and ceramic work that addresses themes of African American history and music, especially jazz. Along with his brother, artist Alonzo Davis, he co-founded Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park. Through the gallery and his broader community work, Davis became an important promoter of African-American artists in Los Angeles.

Eileen Abdulrashid is an American artist and craftsperson who is known for her work in enamel on copper.

Mary Lovelace O'Neal is an American artist and arts educator. Her work is focused on abstracted mixed-media and minimalism. She is a Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and retired from teaching in 2006. O'Neal's art has been exhibited widely throughout North America and internationally, with group and solo shows in Italy, France, Chile, Senegal and Nigeria. She lives and works in Oakland, California, and maintains a studio in Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Alf</span> American artist (1930–2019)

Martha Joanne Alf was an American artist. Her work consists of paintings, drawings and photographs of everyday objects, including pears and rolls of toilet paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomashi Jackson</span> American artist

Tomashi Jackson is an American multimedia artist working across painting, video, textiles and sculpture. Jackson was born in Houston, Texas, raised in Los Angeles, and currently lives and works in New York, NY and Cambridge, MA. Jackson was named a 2019 Whitney Biennial participating artist. Jackson also serves on the faculty for sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design. Her work is included in the collection of MOCA Los Angeles. In 2004, a 20-foot-high by 80-foot-long mural by Jackson entitled Evolution of a Community was unveiled in the Los Angeles neighborhood of West Adams.

Brenna Youngblood is an American artist based in Los Angeles who is known for creating photographic collages, sculpture, and paintings. Her work explores issues of African-American identity and representation.

Gloria Racine Bohanon was an American visual artist and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She received a BA in Art Education and an MA in Art Education from Wayne State. She also studied at Otis College of Art and Design in 1973. She was an active member of the Los Angeles contemporary art scene in the 1970s. As a professor at Los Angeles Community College, she organized "Black Culture Week" in 1974. She taught design, painting, printmaking, and served as chair of the Arts Department while there. She was the director of ADAPT, an organization for disabled students while at LACC.

Deborah Roberts is an American contemporary artist. Roberts is a mixed media collage artist whose figurative works depict the complexity of Black subjecthood and explores themes of race, identity, and gender politics taking on the subject of otherness as understood against the backdrop of existing societal norms of race and beauty. Roberts was named 2023 Texas Medal of Arts Award Honoree for the Visual Arts. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Yvonne Olivia Cole Meo (1923–2016) was an American artist known primarily for sculpture and printmaking. Born in Seattle, Washington, Meo lived in Los Angeles for most of her life, primarily in Altadena CA.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Jackson, Suzanne (American painter, mixed-media artist, born 1944)". Union List of Artist Names Online. The J. Paul Getty Trust.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gerwin, Daniel (2019). "Suzanne Jackson at O-Town House". Artforum.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mason, Karen Anne (interviewer), Suzanne Jackson (interviewee). "Interview with Suzanne Jackson". UCLA Library Digital Collections, Oral History Collections, African American Artists of Los Angeles. Retrieved 3 August 2018.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  4. ↑ Jones, Kellie (2017). South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Keith, Naima J. (6 August 2018). "Suzanne Jackson". Hammer Museum.
  6. 1 2 "Artist Walkthrough, Life Model: Charles White and His Students with Suzanne Jackson at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)". curate.la. 2019. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  7. ↑ "Suzanne Jackson | Hammer Museum".
  8. ↑ "Suzanne Jackson | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  9. ↑ "Historical Note | A Finding Aid to the Ankrum Gallery records, circa 1900-circa 1990s, bulk 1960-1990". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  10. ↑ Ankrum, Joan. "Suzanne Jackson folder". Smithsonian Archives.
  11. ↑ Felsenthal, Julia (2019-11-19). "An Artist Who Makes Paintings Without a Canvas". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  12. ↑ Foundation, Joan Mitchell (25 September 2019). "Artist Programs » Artist Grants". joanmitchellfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  13. ↑ Felsenthal, Julia (2019-11-19). "An Artist Who Makes Paintings Without a Canvas". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  14. ↑ "Suzanne Jackson". The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  15. ↑ "Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection". CAAM. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  16. ↑ "Kiss Me". Indianapolis Museum of Art Online Collection. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  17. ↑ "Suzanne Jackson's "holding on to a sound" - Features - art-agenda". www.art-agenda.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  18. 1 2 "Modern Art in Los Angeles: Gallery 32 (Getty)". www.getty.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  19. ↑ Smith, Melissa (2019-11-20). "'We Had to Do It For Ourselves': Legendary Gallerist Suzanne Jackson on Why the Art World Has Never Gotten Her Story Right". Artnet News. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  20. ↑ "Life Model: Charles White and His Students". LACMA. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  21. ↑ Flora, Rachael. "Five decades of Suzanne Jackson". Connect Savannah. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  22. ↑ "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  23. ↑ "West by Midwest, Nov 17, 2018 – Jan 27, 2019". Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA). Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  24. 1 2 3 "Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, A Conversation with Cynthia Burlingham". Choice 360. November 27, 2017. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  25. ↑ "Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980". Hammer Museum. UCLA. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.