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Barbara Jones (1912 - 1978)

Black Eyes and Lemonade, Joness 1951 exhibition of popular art and design at the Whitechapel Gallery

SKU: 7973
Lithographic poster
20 x 31 in. (78 x 51 cm).
Presentation:
framed

Size:
Height – 78cm x Width – 51cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
Tony Raymond, the artist’s studio assistant; Neil Jennings Fine Art

Literature: Artmonsky pp.63-72.

In 1951 a colourful and vibrant exhibition of popular art opened at the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the Festival of Britain. A talking lemon, an edible model of St Paul’s Cathedral, a fireplace in the shape of a dog and a life-size wax model of a Rabbi, were amongst a plethora of other extraordinary objects on display.
Entitled Black Eyes and Lemonade, after a Thomas Moore poem Intercepted Letters or The Two-Penny Post Bag (1813), it presented everyday objects made in Britain, normally excluded from museums and art galleries.
The 1951 exhibition was organised by artist, designer and writer Barbara Jones. It was divided in categories such as Home, Birth-Marriage-Death, Man’s Own Image and Commerce & Industry, reflecting Jones’s ideas on popular art and museum culture, questioning the cultural values attached to handmade and machine made objects.


Poster designs for Black Eyes and Lemonade, Jones’s 1951 exhibition of popular art and design at the Whitechapel Gallery.

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THE ARTIST

Barbara Jones
Barbara
Jones
1912 - 1978

Barbara Jones first attended art school in Croydon (1931’33) before
winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art (1933’36), where
she met painter Cliff Barry whom she married in 1941.

A prolific and varied artist, during WWII she worked with
the Pilgrim Trust on the Recording Britain series, making one of
the largest contributions of the 63 artists taking part. She wrote
and illustrated books on design history, many of which are today
considered seminal, including The Unsophisticated Arts, 1951 and
Design for Death, 1967.

In 1951, she organised the Black Eyes and Lemonade: Curating
Popular Art
exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery for the Festival
of Britain. A fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists from the same
year, she was made vice president in 1969. She was also a fellow of
the Royal Anthropological Institute and a member of the Society of
Authors. A retrospective exhibition of the contents of her studio was
held at Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, in 1999.

With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk

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