Watercolor on thick wove paper, 2005. 450x330 mm; 17 3/4x13 inches. Signed and dated "12/05" in ink, lower right recto. Signed, titled, dated "12/05", inscribed "Le Habane, Cuba" and "watercolor" in ink, lower right verso. Numbered 5/50 in ink, lower left verso. From the artist's 2001-06 Praise series.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, private collection.
Ben Jones's artwork celebrates beauty, spiritualism, dance and music in African and African-American culture. Jones used flourescent colors, sequins, dots and gold star stickers throughout his early paintings and installations. He combined the symbolism of icon painting with the bejewelled look of dance queens - a theme that he first developed in his 1970 painting, The High Priestess of Soul. His 2009 retrospective at the Jersey City Museum of Art, Deliverance, featured a complete survey of this New Jersey artist's work. Jones is best known for his iconic Black Face and Arm Unit, from 1971, now in the permanent collection of the State Museum of New Jersey in Trenton. His 1970 Five Black Face Images was also illustrated the front cover of Elsa Honig Fine's 1973 historical survey The Afro-American Artist.
