A groundbreaking volume exploring the life and innovative creative daring of contemporary artist Suzanne Jackson with poetry contributed by Aberjhani.
Suzanne Jackson Five Decades (Telfair Museums, 2019) is the first retrospective catalogue of African-American artist Suzanne Jackson, who spent most of her youth growing up in Alaska and now travels the world as an internationally-acclaimed painter. The book was edited by Rachel Reese, and in addition to Jackson’s art, contains contributions from artist Betye Saar, author-artist Aberjhani, Tiffany E. Barber, Melanee C. Harvey, and Julie E. Neal.
Aberjhani’s contribution to the book is a poem titled “Suzannian Algorithm Finger-Painted on an Abstract Wall.” The spontaneous composition of the poem has been described by the poet in part 2 of his essay series on Jackson:
In addition to composing“Suzannian Algorithm Finger-Painted on an Abstract Wall” for the retrospective catalogue, Aberjhani also created, in tribute to Ms. Jackson, two fine art digital paintings featuring the poem. Those are currently available on his Fine Art American and Pixels websites.
Since the 2019 publication of Five Decades, Ms. Jackson has enjoyed the rare honor of seeing her work featured on leading fine art industry publications, as well as ongoing back-to-back retrospective exhibitions. With the onset of AI-generated art in the 2020s, the example of Jackson’s unique human style and considerable body of work is particularly significant.
A LOT HAS HAPPENED SINCE THE INITIAL PUBLICATION OF THIS BOOK. CHECK OUT MORE ON THE PHENOMENAL STORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTIST SUZANNE JACKSON:
Excerpt
“Her Life, like her woman's-body aesthetics, proclaims
its value on its own smoldering tear-drenched terms.
“Sweet honey-colored prayers disguised
as unrepentant love songs float perfumed clouds
above unmapped territories emerging
from between the cracks of a flesh-and-spirit cosmos.”
Forging masterworks out of unkind injustice.
Humming forth gold out of murdered treasures.
(from poem Suzannian Algorithm Finger-Painted on an Abstract Wall by Aberjhani, published in Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades)
Professional Reviews Artbook
Published on the occasion of the first full-career survey of Savannah-based artist Suzanne Jackson (born 1944) at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, Five Decades illuminates a career that spans more than 50 years, across painting, drawing, theatre, costume design, dance, printmaking and sculpture. The book presents a unique selection of Jackson's artworks and explicates their relationships to identity, community, the natural world and the human body.
Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades of Encouraging Life.” Black Art in America, 11 June 2019
"As a model of steadfastness to her practice, the trajectory of Jackson’s career is astounding given African American artists from past generations are only now receiving overdue credit for their work."
Frieze
"That Jackson’s own artistic career has remained relatively under the radar feels, in truth, less of a paradox and more simply a reflection of the times in which she was emerging as a black woman abstractionist – an indictment of the art world’s fixation on the very labels to which she has refused to conform." (Chase Quinn)
Personal journals are full of potential, waiting for you to add the color! Pages for you to fill in the blanks with tidbits and trivia about North Dakota
