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Joseph Holston facts for kids

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Joseph Holston (born April 6, 1944) is an American painter and printmaker. He is well-known for showing the African American experience in his art. He uses bright colors and strong lines in a style that mixes different shapes and ideas. He creates art using paint, etchings (a type of printmaking), silk screens, and collages.

Joseph Holston: Artist and Storyteller

Early Life and Art Journey

Joseph Holston grew up in a small Black community called Hawkins Lane in Chevy Chase, Maryland. This community was very close-knit and helped him feel proud of his Black identity. In 1960, his family moved to Washington, D.C. There, Joseph joined a program to study commercial art at Chamberlain Vocational High School.

From 1964 to 1970, Holston worked as a commercial artist and illustrator. This means he created art for businesses, like advertisements or book pictures. He also took art classes around Washington, D.C., learning from famous artists like Marcos Blahove. In 1971, he traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to study with Richard Vernon Goetz, who was known for painting people, landscapes, and still life.

Soon after returning to Washington, D.C., Holston decided to paint full-time. The next year, his painting Ghetto Boy was bought by a businessman named W. Marvin Watson Jr. This painting was then given to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.

Exploring Printmaking and Exhibitions

In 1974, Joseph Holston was inspired by the prints of an artist named Rembrandt. He started making his own etchings. Etching is a way of making prints by carving designs into a metal plate. Holston uses different techniques to create cool effects in his etchings. One of his first prints, Woman with Pipe (1974), is now in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Other prints of his can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and other museums.

Woman with Pipe
Woman with Pipe. Etching, 1975. Collection of The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

His first solo art show in a museum was in 1975 at the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio. The next year, he spent three months in Tanzania, where he painted and taught art classes at the University of Dar es Salaam.

After this time, Holston's art began to change. He started using "bold color, expressive forms, and rhythmic lines" more often. He also began creating collages, which are artworks made by gluing different materials onto a surface. From 1979 to 1990, he learned even more about printmaking, making etching-collagraphs and screen prints. After 1990, he continued to make his own etchings and also worked with a master screen printer.

A special exhibition of his prints, called Limited Editions: Joseph Holston Prints, 1974 - 2010, was shown at the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland and at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. In 2020, two of his artworks, The Elder (an oil painting) and Charity (an etching), were part of a big exhibition at The Phillips Collection.

Holston has also had major solo exhibitions at other museums, including the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at several universities, meaning he worked and taught art there.

Art for Freedom: The Underground Railroad Series

In 2008, Holston created a powerful series of artworks called Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad. This collection tells the story of the journey from slavery to freedom. It includes over fifty paintings, etchings, and drawings.

The collection is divided into four main parts:

  • I. The Unknown World: Shows the journey of captive Africans from their homes, across the ocean (the Middle Passage), and to the slave markets.
  • II. Living in Bondage—Life on the Plantation: Shows what life was like for enslaved people.
  • III. The Journey of Escape: Follows the path to freedom.
  • IV. Color in Freedom: Celebrates reaching freedom and new beginnings.

This project shows how artists can use their work to help us understand history better. Since 2008, this collection has been shown in museums and galleries all over the world, including at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Where You Can See His Art

Joseph Holston's artworks are part of many public collections. This means you can find his art in these places:

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