May Howard Jackson (September 7, 1877–1931) was an African-American sculptor.[1]
She was known as "one of the first black sculptors to ... deliberately use America's racial problems" as the theme of her art.[2]
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[hide]Early life and career[edit]
May Howard Jackson was born and grew up in Philadelphia, which had a large and well-established black community. She was a student at J. Liberty Tadd's art school there and in 1895 became the first African American to receive a scholarship to attend The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
She married a mathematics teacher, and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1902. She became a sculptor of portraits, and taught at Howard University.[3] She did not travel to Europe to study and as a result was somewhat isolated from her peers. This allowed her to create her own vision and infused her work with a unique style. Her portraits were at first ignored, as they were not realistic in the cameo style popular at the time.
They were provocative for expressing the features of the multi-racial in American society. for centuries Europeans and Africans had formed unions and marriages. She was fascinated with the wide variety of features among African Americans. Her works such as Head of a Negro Child 1916, Mulatto Mother and Her Child 1929, and Shell-Baby in Bronze 1929[4] took up this theme in her abstracts and defined her sculptures.
Few galleries were willing to offer her exhibition space. With legal racial segregation and disenfranchisement of most blacks having been in force across the South since the turn of the century, topics such as racial mixing were taboo in general. Laws against miscegenation had been proposed in both federal and state legislatures after Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected as President in 1912.
As a sculptress, Jackson was accomplished enough to be counted among the pantheon of great American sculptors. May Howard Jackson died in 1931.[5] She is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
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May Howard Jackson (September 7, 1877–1931) was an African American sculptor. She was known as one of the first black sculptors to deliberately use America's racial problems as the theme of her art.
May Howard Jackson was born and grew up in Philadelphia, which had a large and well-established black community. She was a student at J. Liberty Tadd's art school there and in 1895 became the first African American to receive a scholarship to attend The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
May Howard Jackson was born and grew up in Philadelphia, which had a large and well-established black community. She was a student at J. Liberty Tadd's art school there and in 1895 became the first African American to receive a scholarship to attend The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
She married a mathematics teacher, William and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1902. She became a sculptor of portraits, and taught at Howard University. She did not travel to Europe to study and as a result was somewhat isolated from her peers. This allowed her to create her own vision and infused her work with a unique style. Her portraits were at first ignored, as they were not realistic in the cameo style popular at the time.
However, her portraits were provocative for expressing the features of the multi-racial in American society. For centuries, Europeans and Africans had formed unions and marriages. May was fascinated with the wide variety of features among African Americans. Her works such as Head of a Negro Child 1916, Mulatto Mother and Her Child 1929, and Shell-Baby in Bronze 1929 took up this theme in her abstracts and defined her sculptures.
Few galleries were willing to offer her exhibition space. With legal racial segregation and disenfranchisement of most blacks having been in force across the South since the turn of the century, topics such as racial mixing were taboo in general. Laws against miscegenation had been proposed in both federal and state legislatures after Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected as President in 1912.
As a sculptress, Jackson was accomplished enough to be counted among the pantheon of great American sculptors. May Howard Jackson died in 1931. She is interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
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