Loïs Mailou Jones & Les Fétiches

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Image from Smithsonian Museum of Art Website
Jones, Loïs Mailou. Les Fétiches. 1933,
Smithsonian American Art Museum. 
(Image from Smithsonian American Art Museum website)


Loïs Mailou Jones
(Image from blackpast.org)

 Artist Background

Loïs Mailou Jones was an American painter, born in 1905 in Boston, MA. She grew up experimenting with art and eventually graduated from the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1927. She was the first African American to do so. Later in life, she taught art at the Palmer Memorial Institute and Howard University. Much of her art has themes of African culture and use of bold or vibrant color, although she also painted traditional landscapes and some portraits. Though she was not originally from New York, she was considered to be an influential artist of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Artwork Background

    While on sabbatical in Paris, Jones encountered depictions of African art. Using African tradition and tribal practices as inspiration, she painted Les Fétiches in 1938. The painting, which consists of oil on linen, depicts African tribal masks presented in layered and scattered manner. The title, meaning "the fetishes" in French, most likely alludes to the red fetish that is included on the right side of the painting. According to a journal article written in 1990 by Robert Pool, in African culture, fetishes were "certain types of composite material objects...which possessed supernatural power." In this case, Jones likely placed the fetish in the painting so as to stand as a symbol of protection, power, or righteousness over the masks and over African culture as a whole. Another example of her work is below. 

Jones, Loïs Mailou. La Baker. 1977,
Museum of Fine Art Boston.
(Image from Museum of Fine Arts Boston website)


Elements and Principles of Design

    The colors present in Les Fétiches offer a warm, earth-tone atmosphere. Unlike Jones' other paintings of African culture, the colors in Les Fétiches are soft and mostly neutral. The shapes of the masks are recognizable and anthropomorphic, especially the beige mask that sits in the middle of the painting. Line is used not only to accent the masks but to serve as direction and movement from one mask to another. For example, the white curved lines which are located to the right of the beige mask, direct the viewers eye to the masks below which are more concealed. Overall, space is very much taken advantage of. Most of the linen is taken up by the various masks, and their ornaments, which are distinguishable by their varied colors. 

Relationship to Modern Art Movement 

    According to the Museum of Modern Art's learning website, one of the defining characteristics of the modern art movement was the departure from commissioned, instructed creation of art and a newfound focus on the artist's "personal experiences...symbolism, and personal iconography." I find Les Fétiches - although maybe not purposefully intended - to be a bold statement of such for Jones' artistry, especially in the midst of American and Western culture. As an African American woman in art during the 20th century, Jones was not taken as seriously as her white counterparts. So much so that in one case, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's website, when Jones won an award for one of her pieces, she sent a white friend to receive the award, so as to not "risk having it rescinded." Because of these circumstances, Jones' construction of a painting depicting African tribal culture aligns with the ideas of personal experience and symbolism that are apparent within the modern art movement. Jones uplifts her ancestry and gives power to the symbols of African culture. Although the piece was completed in Paris, the iconography of these tribal masks shows distinction of Jones' inspirations and experiences, especially in American and Western culture, where these masks are likely to be seen as the opposite of powerful and emblematic. 

Reader Questions: Which elements of art strike you the most in Les Fétiches?


Other Sources Used

Blackpast.org

Encyclopedia Britannica







    



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