All Things Considered

Barbara Jones
Posted by Simon Lewin

Regulars will know we're long time fans of Barbara Jones' work.

Born in 1912, Barbara Jones studied at the R.C.A. and was a pioneer in the field of popular culture, demonstrated by the book ‘The Unsophisticated Arts’ - published in 1951 and described by Peter Blake as “a treasure trove of information about popular art”.

In 2009, Ruth Artmonsky published a book on Jones’ work - “A Snapper Up Of Unconsidered Trifles” which we recommend.

We were very lucky to source a copy of the poster for her 'Black Eyes & Lemonade' exhibition in 1951 and a copy of the catalogue for the exhibition - we've put a few pages of that online.

Our friends at Quad Royal share our passion for Barbara Jones' work as you'll see here and here.

We have a few of Jones' original drawings and sketchbooks which we'll share before too long.

We've been prompted to post this for two reasons.

Until 9th March 2013 there's an exhibition of British murals and decorative painting in London organised by Liss Fine Art which features the magnificent 6' x 12' piece Out in the Hall (below).

The exhibition brings together many of the important murals and decorative cycles undertaken in Britain between 1910 and 1970. Not featured in the exhibition is our gouache piece 'Shelf and Mirror' (below) which we believe was a working drawing for a mural for the ocean liner SS Orsova.

We're also pleased to hear that The Museum of British Folklore are working on a collaborative exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery which will look at Jones' unique curatorial approach to her Black Eyes and Lemonade exhibition. More news on that soon.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 24th, 2013