DES MOINES, IOWA – As a local custom frame retailer and art gallery, The Great Frame Up in West Des Moines is dedicated to supporting local artists in the community. Our May tribute features Lois Mailou Jones’ Biography. “ My work in Cuba looked at issues of sexuality, women’s place in society, and the representation of women in the history of art.” She “renders elements of personal history and persona that have universal relevance...My subjects are my Afro-Cuban relatives as well as myself...The salient tie to familiar and cultural history vastly expands for me the range of photographic possibilities.” -Maria Magdalena CamposPons Synopsis Lois Mailou Jones (November 3, 1905 – June 9, 1998) was an artist who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, during her long teaching and artistic career. Jones was the only African-American female painter of the 1930s and 1940s to achieve fame abroad, and the earliest whose subjects extend beyond the realm of portraiture. Jones felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was “proof of the talent of black artists.” The African-American artist is important in the history of art and I have demonstrated it by working and painting here and all over the world.” But her fondest wish was to be known as an “artist”—without labels like black artist, or woman artist. She has produced work that echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry
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