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Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
NAPOLEON JONES-HENDERSON (1943 - ) A Few Words From the Prophet Stevie.
Color screenprint on cream wove paper, 1976. 368x393 mm; 14 1/2x15 1/2 inches, full margins. Edition of 200. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed, "200 imp" and "Sister Barbara" in pencil, lower margin.
Provenance: acquired directly from the estate of the Barbara Jones-Hogu; private collection, Illinois.
Another impression is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
A Few Words from the Prophet Stevie is Jones-Henderson's screenprint adaptation of an earlier textile design with the same title. There is tension between the border of the work and the interior. The exterior of the plate contains curvilinear shapes, quotes from American history that question our society, a red, white, and blue border from the American flag, and Klu Klux Klan-shaped stars inspired by Barbara Jones-Hogu's 1969 screenprint, America. In contrast, the interior contains powerful symbols of Black humanity including geometrical shapes, lyrics from Stevie Wonder's politically inclined track You Haven't Done Nothing, and a green, black, and red pyramid that is symbolic of the Black Power Movement.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Jones-Henderson attended the Sorbonne Student Continuum-Student and Artists Center in Paris, France in 1963 for 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, attaining his BFA in 1971. He went on to earn credits in advanced graduate studies in Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University and earned his MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005.
In 1969 Jones-Henderson became a member of AfriCOBRA. During the formative years of AfriCOBRA, Jones-Henderson created large pictorial woven tapestries that were included in the group's series of exhibitions. Over the course of his career, Jones-Henderson served in various academic positions at Malcolm X College, Massachusetts College of Art, Emerson College, Roxbury Community College, and Vermont College of Norwich University. In 2005, Jones-Henderson was appointed associate professor of art at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition, Jones-Henderson was an artist-in-residence at Towson University, Syracuse University, and the McDonough School.
Jones-Henderson is executive director of the Research Institute of African and African Diaspora Arts, Inc. and Bennu Arts, LLC., in Roxbury, Massachusetts. 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 the Studio Museum in Harlem.
