| A set of recurrent motifs—most prominently
tobacco barns, houses, keyholes, and photographs—point to an
intrinsic link between the life and art of this young artist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1966, Stone grew up in
Dorchester after his parents purchased a home in the predominantly
African American neighborhood. Forced bussing to South Boston High
School, located in a mostly Irish American part of town, created
tensions between the bordering working class neighborhoods of
Dorchester and South Boston. Stone's
mother eventually enrolled him in a parochial school.
A scholarship to study architecture at Parson's School of
Design took him to New York where he worked in construction while
attending school.
Stone later
went to England for a year before moving on to Sydney, Australia for
the next two years. The
peculiar Australian architectural vernacular with its confluence of
architectural styles and detailed interiors had a permanent
impression on the creative psyche of Stone.
From Australia, Stone toured Mexico for three months.
But perhaps the most indelible of all his travelling
experiences were his summer trips as a child to North Carolina.
References to this period abound in Stone’s works as he
draws upon a well of childhood memories of landscapes, activities
and politics that make up the southern Black experience.
More
recently, Stone applied his architectural training in managing
non-profit construction projects in Philadelphia.
Consequently, rural vistas and agricultural spoils of
childhood memories abound in his assemblages just as urban visions
and found objects from abandoned houses in North Philadelphia.
Yet,
neither reference to the artist’s biography nor mention of his
African American identity may exhaust the complex meaning of his
works. Clearly,
Stone’s installations manifest the artist’s reworking of key
experiences. But at the
same time, the significance of his artworks transcends the mere
personal and autobiographical.
Closer examination of Stone’s assemblages reveals a
cultural and historical microcosm that indexes a universal knowledge
of classical and contemporary traditions.
Stone’s interests in both aesthetics and social justice
translated into an art practice that links the personal and intimate
with the public and political.
Althea
Meade Hajduk, Graduate Student, M.A. Program in Museum
Professions
Jürgen Heinrichs, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Art History
Acknowledgments
“Home, Memory & Identity : The Art of John
Horace Stone” is co-sponsored by the Graduate Program in Museum
Professions. Althea
Meade-Hajduk, curator, and Susan Cippoletti,
curator of education, are
students in the Graduate Program in Museum Professions.
Dr. Jürgen Heinrichs, Assistant Professor, Department of Art
and Music, is the faculty co-ordinator.
Special thanks to the sponsors
whose funding has made this exhibit possible: the Multicultural
Program, the Office of Alumni Relations, and the Office of the Dean
of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of African
American Studies. Additional
special thanks to Eva Gale, TLTC- Media Services, Jimmy
O’Donnell, Athletic
Office, and Michael Hajduk, Computing Services.
Walsh Library Gallery is part of
the Special Collections Center, University Libraries, Dr. Arthur
Hafner, Dean. Gallery
hours are Monday- Friday 10:30 am – 4:30 pm. Contact Jo Ann Cotz,
Gallery Director, at 973-275-2033 for more information, special
events and groups tours.
|
