1914-2004
Works in the Collection
Biography
Frederick D. Jones was born in 1913 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and spent the majority of his early childhood in Georgetown, South Carolina. After relocating with his family to Atlanta, Georgia, Jones studied under renowned artist Hale Woodruff. After high school, Jones relocated to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. While in Chicago he became a regular fixture in the South Side Community Center, where he worked alongside some of the most prominent African American artists of the time, including Charles White, Eldzier Cortor, Charles Sebree, Margaret Burroughs and Gordon Parks. After the war, Jones returned to Chicago to help direct the Southside Community Center. In 1988, Jones was chosen by the Smithsonian Institute to participate in the American Oral Art History Program through which he helped contribute to the little-documented history of African American artists. The artist passed in 1996.