Artworks

Frank Jones (1900-1969)

African American artist, Frank Jones, was born in Clarksville, Texas with a sliver of fetal membrane covering his left eye. In several cultures, including African American tradition, abnormalities like this can enable an individual to see spirits and devils. Jones saw his first “haints” (haunts or ghosts) at the age of nine, and this ability later influenced his artistic practice. 

Throughout his adult life, Jones worked as a farm laborer and spent several years in and out of Texas jails. Eventually, Jones was charged with murder (though he insisted on his innocence until his death) and given a life sentence. It was then, at the Texas State Penitentiary, that he began drawing. Using typing paper and salvaged stubs of colored pencils, Jones produced several hundred illustrations of his supernatural visions, including his signature “devil houses”— hollow and intricate structures within which his haints resided. For many years, Jones' work was solely used by the artist as a bartering tool in the prison economy, until The Texas Department of Corrections held an art show, and Jones was discovered by gallerist Murray Smither. With this connection, Jones gained access to more art materials and a wider audience, eventually earning him notoriety within the outsider art world. Jones’ mystic intuition, strict color palette, and labyrinthine style have made him a key figure in the world of self-taught, and outsider art.