1957 Mid-Century Modernist Figurative Mixed Media Drawing by Alexander Brooks a.b. Jackson

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Description

There is something haunting and deeply human about this 1957 figurative work by Alexander Brooks “A.B.” Jackson (1925–1981). Overlapping figures … Read more There is something haunting and deeply human about this 1957 figurative work by Alexander Brooks “A.B.” Jackson (1925–1981). Overlapping figures seem to emerge from and dissolve into one another, built from searching lines, translucent washes and passages of deep shadow. Up close, the drawing reveals a remarkable sense of movement: lines are reconsidered, forms overlap and faces appear almost to materialize from the paper.

That immediacy is part of what makes the work so compelling. It feels less like a carefully posed portrait than a moment of observation caught while it was still alive, with Jackson allowing the process of looking and drawing to remain visible.

About A.B. Jackson

Alexander Brooks “A.B.” Jackson was an African American artist and educator whose career became deeply intertwined with the cultural life of Norfolk, Virginia. Formally trained at Yale University, Jackson earned his BFA in painting in 1953 and his MFA in graphic design in 1955 before moving to Norfolk the following year.

There he built a career as both an artist and teacher, first joining the faculty of Norfolk State College and later, in 1967, joining Old Dominion University as its first Black faculty member. Jackson remained at Old Dominion for the rest of his life, teaching generations of students while continuing his own artistic practice.

The human figure occupied an important place in Jackson’s work. His paintings and works on paper often transformed observed people into expressive arrangements of line, color and form, balancing recognizable human presence with the language of modernism. His work entered institutional collections including Yale University, Dartmouth College and the Mint Museum, and following his death in 1981, the Chrysler Museum presented a retrospective exhibition of his work. His archival papers are preserved today in the Special Collections and University Archives at Old Dominion University.

The 1957 date makes this particular work especially compelling. Jackson had completed his MFA at Yale only two years earlier and had moved to Norfolk in 1956. This drawing therefore comes from the very beginning of the Virginia chapter that would ultimately define much of his artistic and teaching career.

The Work

Executed in mixed media on paper, including drawing and wash media, the work is signed and dated “A.B. Jackson ’57” at lower right. The vintage backing is separately inscribed “A.B. JACKSON ’57” in handwriting consistent with documented examples of Jackson’s signature.

The presentation has its own wonderful history. The work remains beneath glass in its understated period wood frame and mat, retaining its old paper backing, hanging hardware and a vintage label from The House of Heydenryk, 141 West 54th Street, New York. The restrained framing allows Jackson’s expressive line and beautifully muted palette of black, gray and warm paper tones to command the room.

It is an intimate surviving work from the beginning of Jackson’s career in Virginia, visually compelling on its own while preserving a tangible connection to an artist and educator whose life became an important part of the history of African American art and higher education in Virginia.

The work has not been removed from its vintage framing. The precise combination of drawing and wash media has not been independently analyzed and is conservatively described as mixed media on paper.

Artwork: approximately 11 × 13 in.
Framed: 17.5 × 18.75 × 0.5 in.
Date: 1957
Signed: “A.B. Jackson ’57,” lower right
Medium: Mixed media on paper, including drawing and wash media
Framing: Vintage House of Heydenryk frame, under glass See less