Jae Jarrell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jae Jarrell
Born	Elaine Annette Johnson 1935 (age 89–90)
Education	Bowling Green State University School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Occupation	Clothing designer Artist
Years active	1935- present
Spouse(s)	Wadsworth Jarrell
Children	2

Elaine "Jae" Jarrell (born Elaine Annette Johnson in 1935) is an American artist and fashion designer. She is known for her work during the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. Jae Jarrell also helped start an important art group called AfriCOBRA.

Early Life and Education

Jae Jarrell grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Her grandparents taught her about fabrics and sewing when she was young. Her uncle owned a store that sold fabrics and sewing tools. This business made her interested in fashion and starting her own company.

Jarrell's mother also took her to vintage shops. She taught Jae to appreciate the skill used to make clothes. Jarrell wanted to create unique clothing. She learned to sew very well and made her own garments. She also loves vintage items because they hold "secrets of the past."

Jarrell went to Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Later, she moved to Chicago to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She met Wadsworth Jarrell there in 1963. He later became her husband.

Jae Jarrell's Career

Starting in Chicago

When Jae Jarrell first moved to Chicago, she worked at Motorola for a short time. A coworker suggested she use "Jae" as her professional name. This name came from her first and middle names.

After that, Jarrell opened her own store near Hyde Park. She called it "Jae of Hyde Park." Chicago was a very important city for both Jae and Wadsworth. It was where they helped create the AfriCOBRA art group. Jarrell said that Chicago's lively art scene helped AfriCOBRA develop.

In 1967, she married Wadsworth Jarrell. They had their first child, Wadsworth Jr., in 1968. After their second child, Jennifer, was born, the Jarrells moved to New York. They wanted to leave Chicago because of social and economic problems there.

Later, Jarrell moved to Washington D.C. She continued her education at Howard University. There, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and did graduate work.

Founding AfriCOBRA

In 1968, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jeff Donaldson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald Williams formed AfriCOBRA. They met in Wadsworth's art studio in Chicago. AfriCOBRA stands for the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists.

Jarrell created many of her artworks as part of AfriCOBRA. This group of African American artists wanted to use African art styles. They also wanted to call for change and celebrate Black pride. AfriCOBRA was formed from an earlier group called the Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists (COBRA).

A founding member, Jeff Donaldson, wrote a statement for the group. It explained their main ideas and beliefs. He said AfriCOBRA's art would focus on three things:

• Definition: Art that looked at the past.
• Identification: Art that connected to the present.
• Direction: Art that looked toward the future.

Donaldson also listed six important qualities for AfriCOBRA's art:

• Expressive Awesomeness: A strong feeling found in African art and Black life in the U.S.
• Symmetry and Rhythm: Repeating patterns with changes, like African music and dance.
• Mimesis: Showing both the good and bad, the abstract and real.
• Organic Looking: Art that seems like the artist created it naturally.
• Shine: Art that has a bright, rich glow, like clean hair or polished shoes.
• Color: Bright, bold colors that are free and exciting.

These ideas guided how Jae Jarrell and other AfriCOBRA artists made their work.

Jarrell and the group wanted their art to build a positive community. They aimed to promote Black pride. Jarrell said they wanted to create "an explosion of positive imagery." They hoped to give kids direction and show Black leaders in a new way. She saw that their work helped people learn more about Black history.

Some people linked AfriCOBRA to groups like the Black Panther Party. However, Jarrell saw AfriCOBRA as a group focused on positivity and empowering African Americans. She said they focused on times of African strength. They avoided using negative things like segregation as inspiration.

When making art for AfriCOBRA, Jarrell designed unique clothes. She used the body as a way to show identity and call for change. Her pieces showed the group's goal: to create an African American art style that celebrated Black power and community.

Jarrell made textile designs on leather or suede. She would tie-dye, screen print, hand paint, and add fabric pieces to them. Her most famous works from this time include her Revolutionary Suit (1968), Ebony Family (1968), and Urban Wall Suit (1969).

Revolutionary Suit

The Revolutionary Suit (1968) is a two-piece outfit. It has a tweed jacket without a collar and a skirt. These parts matched the fashion of the time. The suit also has a colorful, fake bandolier (a belt with pockets for bullets) that stands out. This piece made people think about wearing clothes for protest. A magazine called Jet criticized mainstream fashion for copying the bandolier design. They said fashion was taking a symbol of protest and turning it into a trendy accessory.

Ebony Family Suit

Following AfriCOBRA's focus on the Black Family, Jarrell created her Ebony Family suit (1968). It represents the strength within Black families. This suit also shows AfriCOBRA's interest in African art and bright, vivid "Cool-ade" colors. These colors were like the bright orange, cherry red, lemon yellow, lime green, and grape purple of Kool-aid drinks. Jarrell made her suit like a poster, shaped like a dashiki. A dashiki is a traditional West African men's shirt. The suit shows a colorful Black family, with faces that look like African masks.

Urban Wall Suit

Jarrell's Urban Wall Suit (1969) was inspired by graffiti and concert posters. These were common on the streets and in African American neighborhoods in Chicago. Jarrell included AfriCOBRA's idea of using images with words. The suit became a symbol of community message boards. It has images of posters saying "Vote Democrat" and graffiti like "Black Princess" and "Miss Attitude."

For the Urban Wall Suit, Jarrell reused fabric scraps from her store. This followed an AfriCOBRA idea to reinvent materials. She used small pieces to make a patchwork that looked like bricks. She added velvet ribbon as the mortar. These fabric scraps were different colors and patterns, like stripes, polka dots, and plaid. Then she added the graffiti and poster elements.

The AfriCOBRA group saw themselves as a "family." They worked together, blending their unique styles into one group look. This unity showed strength in their art and their movement. It also helped them challenge unfair ideas about Black families. Their combined efforts gave a voice to the community through their art.

Jae Jarrell and her husband worked with their art "family" for a cause they believed in. Eventually, they left the main group. However, Jarrell says AfriCOBRA still influences her art today. She feels it's like a family you can never truly leave.

Later Work and Exhibitions

In recent years, Jarrell has started focusing on sculpting and making furniture. Some of her newer works were shown in the How to Remain Human exhibition in Cleveland. These include Maasai Collar Vest (2015), Shields and Candelabra Vest (2015), and Jazz Scramble Jacket (2015).

The Maasai Collar Vest (2015) looks like the beautiful clothes and jewelry of the Maasai people in Africa. This piece shows her connection to her African heritage, a theme in all her work. Her Shields and Candelabra Vest (2015) uses cactus plants to create frames for colorful African shields. For her Jazz Scrabble Jacket (2015), Jarrell combines ideas from jazz and blues music with images from the board game Scrabble. She crosses the names of famous musicians, like in a crossword puzzle. This shows how music helped build scenes, styles, power, and history for African American communities.

Jarrell's art has been in many major exhibitions. These include:

• The Brooklyn Museum of Art's Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties (2014).
• The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland's How to Remain Human (2015).
• The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)'s The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now (2015).
• Soul of a Nation at The Broad in Los Angeles (2019), which featured her revolution-themed clothing.

Her garments are owned by private collectors and are part of the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.