An Affirmation of a Legacy w/ artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson
We’re celebrating the legacy of Black art today with Napoleon Jones-Henderson, a member of the legendary collective, AfriCOBRA. Napoleon talks with us about the early years of AfriCOBRA and how that experience helped him grow as an artist. We talk about his working with different materials over the years, passing on his knowledge to the next generation, and how he feels looking back at some of the first art shows as a collective all the way up to the celebration of 50 years of AfriCOBRA at the Venice Biennale Listen. It’s great to hear the voice of someone that helped build and continues to build the legacies that we stand on today. Listen, subscribe, and share!
Episode 121 topics include:
AfriCOBRA
critiques and workshops
creative evolution
AfriCOBRA at Venice Biennale
looking back at the legacy of AfriCOBRA
the brilliance of Duke Ellington
moving between materials and mediums
public art
continuing the legacy
Rhapsody in Knowledge by Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Napoleon Jones-Henderson was born in 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. Jones-Henderson attended the Sorbonne Student Continuum-Student and Artists Center in Paris, France in 1963 where he was immersed in an independent study program in French Art History and Figure Drawing. Upon returning to the United States, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago receiving his B.F.A. degree in 1971. Jones-Henderson went on to earn credits in advanced graduate studies in Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University and earned his M.F.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005.
In 1968, during the apogee of the Chicago Black Arts Movement, Jones-Henderson became a member of the Chicago-based artists’ collective called COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists). The collective changed its name in 1969 to AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). During the formative years of AfriCOBRA, Jones-Henderson created large pictorial woven tapestries that were included in the group’s important series of exhibitions. In the early 1970s, exhibitions were mounted at the newly founded Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has been an active member of AfriCOBRA since 1969. Jones-Henderson is one of the longest continual active members. In 2011, the documentary AfriCOBRA: Art for the People was produced by the TV Land Network. The documentary chronicles the history and celebrates the contributions of AfriCOBRA to the 1960s Black Arts Movement.
His artwork is in the collections of the DuSable Museum of African American History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Southside Community Art Center, Hampton University Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of National Center of Afro-American Artists and Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition, his artwork is in distinguished private collections and numerous public art commissions.
See More: www.napoleonjoneshenderson.com
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