Girl with Hair Tied

John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones studied printmaking with Mauricio Lasansky at Iowa. His early prints were abstractions, cubist in nature, compositions done as a series of planes and hard edged lines and prisms.

John Paul Jones weaned himself away from the geometry of his early prints because he felt that the spare imagery was wrung dry. In the mid 1950s he began to add figurative elements, often emerging out of or receding into a dark background. He thus moved toward the attenuated, magical figurative work that was to become a life-long focus.

Between November 5, 1962 and January 28 of 1963 Jones worked at the Tamarind Institute in Los Angeles, with Tamarind Master Printers where he produced a series of 29 black and white abstracted lithographs, including "Girl with Hair Tied". The early Tamarind lithographs were mostly black and white, published in small editions of 20 plus all the various proof prints. Jones was assisted in the printing of this image by Tamarind Master Printer Joe Zirker.

A profile portrait of a young woman emerges from the background and dominates the composition as it seems to move from the light to the dark. The figure is fragmented, and spirit-like, lit by an undetermined light source that emanates from the dark as if through a tunnel. The entire composition vibrates with intensity and mystery.

Jones noted about this time: "Well, I began to knock off a few prizes. I had some luck at the Brooklyn Museum. Grace Borgenicht (Gallery, in NY) saw some prints and took me on. Here's one thing that finally happened: I found out organization doesn't make great art; it's simply one element. There's got to be a richer combination.

I'd been working too much in my head, too intellectually. These things became sterile. I can break up a space and put it together damn near as good as anybody. It just didn't seem to fulfill anything any more. So I started out using the figure."