1955, Lois Mailou Jones, Peasants at Kenscoff -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Painted soon after Jones first traveled to Haiti in 1954, Peasants at Kenscoff depicts a rural market outside Port-au-Prince. While the rolling hills in the background recall the artist's earlier impressionist style, the angular, flattened patterns and bright colors reveal a new approach energized by her experiences of Haiti and its culture. Keenly aware of European modernists' appropriation of African art, Jones was interested in studying and reclaiming its forms as the basis for a distinctly Black American visual expression. Haiti was a crucial site for this, as she explained: "The art of Africa is lived in the daily life of Haiti."
1955, Lois Mailou Jones, Peasants at Kenscoff -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Painted soon after Jones first traveled to Haiti in 1954, Peasants at Kenscoff depicts a rural market outside Port-au-Prince. While the rolling hills in the background recall the artist's earlier impressionist style, the angular, flattened patterns and bright colors reveal a new approach energized by her experiences of Haiti and its culture. Keenly aware of European modernists' appropriation of African art, Jones was interested in studying and reclaiming its forms as the basis for a distinctly Black American visual expression. Haiti was a crucial site for this, as she explained: "The art of Africa is lived in the daily life of Haiti."