{{Short description|African American artist (b. 1935)}} {{Infobox person | name = Oliver Lee Jackson | other_names = Oliver Jackson,<br/> Oliver L. Jackson | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1935}} | birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | occupation = Painter, sculptor, draftsman, printmaker, educator | education = Illinois Wesleyan University,<br/> University of Iowa | website = {{URL|http://www.oliverleejackson.com/}} }} '''Oliver Lee Jackson''' (born 1935)<ref name="Haddad">{{Cite web|last=Haddad|first=Natalie|date=2022-02-17|title=The Figural Ghosts of Oliver Lee Jackson's Expressive Abstraction|url=http://hyperallergic.com/711763/the-figural-ghosts-of-oliver-lee-jacksons-expressive-abstraction/|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}}</ref> is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, printmaker, and educator. His art studio is in Oakland, California.<ref name="Bravo">{{Cite web|last=Bravo|first=Tony|date=November 19, 2021|title=Oliver Lee Jackson: 'Any Eyes'|url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/event/art-exhibits/oliver-lee-jackson-any-eyes|access-date=2023-05-15|website=Datebook {{!}} San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide|language=en-US|archive-date=2022-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119135112/https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/event/art-exhibits/oliver-lee-jackson-any-eyes|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> He was a professor at the California State University, Sacramento from 1971 until 2002, and developed a curriculum for the Pan African Studies program at the school.<ref name="Seattle Art Museum" />
== Early life and education == He was born in 1935 in St. Louis, Missouri, into an African American family.<ref name="Stella">{{Cite web|last=Stella|first=Lizabel|title=Conserving Oliver Lee Jackson's "Untitled (Sharpeville Series)"|url=https://blantonmuseum.org/2020/12/08/conserving-oliver-lee-jacksons-untitled-sharpeville-series/|website=Blanton Museum of Art|date=8 December 2020 |access-date=2022-02-03|language=en-US}}</ref> After graduating from Vashon High School, Jackson attended Illinois Wesleyan University (B.F.A. 1958).<ref name="Stella" /><ref name="Vaughn" /> He served in the United States Army and was honorably discharged in 1961.<ref name="Vaughn" /><ref name="Seattle Art Museum">{{Cite web |title=Oliver Lee Jackson |url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/people/4178/oliver-lee-jackson;jsessionid=56CA47E8BF7B57BF722047C55EC32B40 |access-date=2022-02-03 |website=Seattle Art Museum |language=en|quote=Oliver Jackson taught and lectured in Art, Philosophy, and Pan African Humanities, and was a Curriculum Consultant for the creation of programs in Pan African Studies. He was Art Instructor at St. Louis Community College (1964-67); Curriculum Specialist and Lecturer at Southern Illinois University (1967-69), and lectured on philosophy and aesthetics of African peoples; Assistant Professor of Art, Washington University, St. Louis (1967-69); and Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies, Oberlin College OH (1969-70). He relocated to California in 1971 to teach in the art department at California State University, Sacramento, where he also developed a curriculum for Pan African Studies and lectured in Pan African Humanities. Jackson continued as Professor of Art at CSU Sacramento until his retirement in 2002.}}</ref> He attended the University of Iowa (M.F.A. 1963).<ref name="Stella" /><ref name="Vaughn">{{Cite web|last=Vaughn|first=Kenya|date=July 16, 2021|title='It's Meant to Move You'|url=http://www.stlamerican.com/arts_and_entertainment/living_it/it-s-meant-to-move-you/article_7c138bf2-e687-11eb-bd5c-8be63f37e075.html|access-date=2022-02-03|website=St. Louis American|language=en|archive-date=2022-02-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205023650/https://www.stlamerican.com/arts_and_entertainment/living_it/it-s-meant-to-move-you/article_7c138bf2-e687-11eb-bd5c-8be63f37e075.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Teaching == In the 1960s, he taught art classes at St. Louis local universities and colleges and remained active in this local community.<ref name="Looker">{{Cite book|last=Looker|first=Benjamin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhTjK01tcEwC|title=BAG: "Point from Which Creation Begins": The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis|date=2004|publisher=Missouri History Museum|isbn=978-1-883982-51-5|pages=120–122|language=en}}</ref> He was director of program Uhuru at Pruitt and Igoe public housing in St. Louis in 1967 and 1968, a program to bring the low-income African American community a constructive means of developing dialogue through arts programs.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
He taught at St. Louis Community College (1964 to 1967); Southern Illinois University (1967 to 1969); Washington University in St. Louis (1967 to 1969); and Oberlin College (1969 to 1970).<ref name="Seattle Art Museum" /> In 1971, he moved to California and joined the faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where he remained until 2002.<ref name="Seattle Art Museum" />
== Art career == Jackson was affiliated with the multidisciplinary arts collective Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis through his close friendship with BAG co-founder Julius Hemphill, though he was not an official BAG member.<ref name="Vaughn" /> BAG was founded by musicians, theater artists, dancers and visual artists as a support structure for creative expression among African American artists, and in order to have a greater place in the cultural landscape.<ref name="Looker" />
Jackson's paintings are based in figural and gestural forms, and often expressionist in nature.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etc3AQAAIAAJ|title=Matrix Berkeley, 1978-1998|publisher=University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive|year=1998|pages=66|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Salzman">{{Cite book|last1=Salzman|first1=Jack|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4QYAAAAIAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History|last2=Smith|first2=David L.|last3=West|first3=Cornel|date=1996|publisher=Macmillan Library Reference|isbn=978-0-02-897345-6|pages=1417|language=en}}</ref> There are a mixture of cultural references and iconography in his paintings including references to historical African art and European Modernism.<ref name="King">{{Cite web|last=King|first=Mary|date=8 April 1979|title=Oliver Jackson at Bixby|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/139523198/|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-05|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|page=81|language=en}}</ref> Photographs of the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 in South Africa became an inspiration for Jackson in the development of his figurative gestural forms, and resulted in his ''Sharpeville Series'' (1968–1977).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vaughn|first=Kenya|date=December 13, 2021|title=Inspired by Africa|url=http://www.stlamerican.com/arts_and_entertainment/living_it/inspired-by-africa/article_bc2fc87a-590c-11ec-8886-f70c98bc7768.html|access-date=2022-02-05|website=St. Louis American|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Salzman" />
Jackson's works are in the museum collections of the Museum of Modern Art;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oliver Jackson|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/2862|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)|language=en}}</ref> the Metropolitan Museum of Art;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Untitled No. 8, 1985|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/632959|access-date=2022-02-03|website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> the Studio Museum in Harlem;<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-09-10|title=Collection|url=https://studiomuseum.org/art-artists/artist-index|access-date=2022-02-03|website=The Studio Museum in Harlem|language=en}}</ref> the National Gallery of Art;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oliver Lee Jackson|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.38358.html|access-date=2022-02-03|website=www.nga.gov}}</ref> San Francisco Museum of Modern Art;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jackson, Oliver Lee|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Oliver_Lee_Jackson/|access-date=2022-02-03|website=SFMOMA|language=en-US}}</ref> San Jose Museum of Art;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oliver Jackson|url=https://sjmusart.org/embark/artist-maker/info/33|access-date=2022-02-03|website=San José Museum of Art|language=en}}</ref> the Seattle Art Museum; and many other public collections.<ref name="Seattle Art Museum" />
== Exhibitions == === Solo === * 1979 – ''Oliver Jackson,'' Bixby Gallery, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri<ref name="King" /> * 1982 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson'', Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 1983 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson'', Matrix Gallery, UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 1990 – ''Currents 43: Oliver Jackson'', Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 1993 — ''New California Art: Oliver Jackson'', Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 1993 – ''Oliver Jackson: Works on Paper'', Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dalkey|first=Victoria|date=10 October 1993|title=Oliver Jackson Relies on Drawings to Clarify His Vision|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/626369261/|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-05|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=The Sacramento Bee|page=177|language=en}}</ref> * 2002 — ''Duo'', Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 2017 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson: Composed'', San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} * 2019 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings'', National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.<ref name="Vaughn" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Wickouski|first=Sheila|date=May 22, 2019|title=Feel the energy of Oliver Lee Jackson's 'Recent Paintings' at National Gallery of Art|url=https://fredericksburg.com/weekender/feel-the-energy-of-oliver-lee-jacksons-recent-paintings-at-national-gallery-of-art/article_84dec5ca-46fa-5584-a2fc-0fde4667bfb2.html|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Fredericksburg.com|publisher=The Free Lance-Star|language=en}}</ref> * 2021–2022 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson–Any Eyes'', di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California<ref name="Bravo" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2022-01-28|title=Mills College Art Museum|url=https://www.7x7.com/best-small-museums-bay-area-2656496565/mills-college-art-museum|access-date=2022-02-03|website=7x7 Bay Area|language=en}}</ref> * 2021–2022 – ''Oliver Lee Jackson'', Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri<ref name="Vaughn" /><ref name="Haddad" />
=== Group === * 1976 – ''Other Sources: An American Essay'', curated by Carlos Villa, including Ruth Asawa, Bernice Bing, Rolando Castellón, Claude Clark, Robert Colescott, Frank Day, Rupert García, Mike Henderson, Oliver Jackson, Frank LaPena, Linda Lomahaftewa, George Longfish, Ralph Maradiaga, José Montoya, Manuel Neri, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Darryl Sapien, Raymond Saunders, James Hiroshi Suzuki, Horace Washington, Al Wong, René Yañez, Leo Valledor, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|last=Johnson|first=Mark|date=September 11, 2013|title=1976 and Its Legacy: Other Sources: An American Essay at San Francisco Art Institute|url=http://www.artpractical.com/feature/other-sources/|url-access=registration|website=Art Practical}}</ref> * 1983 — ''1983 Biennial Exhibition'', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York * 1984 – ''An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture'', Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York * 1987 – ''The Ethnic Idea'', curated by Andrée Maréchal-Workman, including Lauren Adams, Robert Colescott, Dewey Crumpler, Mildred Howard, Oliver Lee Jackson, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Joe Sam, Elisabeth Zeilon, Tom Holland, Celeste Conner, Jean LaMarr, Sylvia Lark, Leta Ramos, Judy Foosaner, Joseph Goldyne, Belinda Chlouber, Carlos Villa. Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California<ref>{{Cite web|date=22 September 1987|title='About Faces' Celebrates Portraiture, Preserve Interest in Ourselves|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/758505629/|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-03|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Oakland Tribune|page=32 (C-3)|language=en}}</ref> * 1989 — ''The Appropriate Object'', Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, with travel to Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California; and Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky * 1994 — ''The Exchange Show: San Francisco/Rio de Janeiro'', Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, and Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * 1994 – ''Continuing the Legacy of the Rockefeller Collection: Recent Acquisitions of 20th Century American Art'', including Joan Brown, Wayne Thiebaud, Manuel Neri, Robert Arneson, Oliver Lee Jackson, Frank Lobdell. De Young Museum, San Francisco, California<ref>{{Cite web|date=5 August 1994|title=Weekend Museums|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/462080655/|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-05|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=The San Francisco Examiner|page=63|language=en}}</ref> * 2016 — ''Dimensions of Black'', Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California, and Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California, Davis, California * 2020 — ''Expanding Abstraction: Pushing the Boundaries of Painting in the Americas'', including Alice Baber, Ibore Camargo, Fernando de Szyszlo, Helen Frankenthaler, Manuel Hernández Gómez, Grace Hartigan, Hans Hofmann, Dorothy Hood, Norman Lewis, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Miguel Ocampo, Jules Olitski, Beverly Pepper, and Alma Thomas. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keever |first=Erin |date=2020-12-24 |title=Best in Show: The Blanton Museum's 'Expanding Abstraction' |url=https://sightlinesmag.org/best-in-show-the-blantons-expanding-abstraction |access-date=2023-07-25 |website=Sightlines |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oliver-lee-jackson-papers-21718 Oliver Lee Jackson papers, 1993-2016], from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Oliver Lee}} Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:African-American sculptors Category:African-American printmakers Category:Artists from St. Louis Category:Illinois Wesleyan University alumni Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:California State University, Sacramento, faculty Category:20th-century American painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:20th-century African-American painters Category:American pan-Africanists Category:Artists from Oakland, California Category:Southern Illinois University Edwardsville faculty Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty Category:Oberlin College faculty Category:Vashon High School alumni