St. George
John T. Scott
- 1992
- Offset Lithograph
- Image/sheet: 19.87" x 14.87"
- 74 prints in this edition
About the Print
Scott’s works display themes of African-American life, Afro-Caribbean culture, and the music culture of his home town New Orleans. Scott worked mainly in printmaking and in sculpture. John T. Scott’s work is best known for its unconventional and experimental use of materials. John used tools such as chain saws, spoons, traditional wood carving tools, kitchen knives and various other accessible tools to create his prints.
“In the African-American community, he was the first to be embraced by the white world. He was an artist of prominence that could rival anyone in the city. He became the role model, the pinnacle that all of us strove to be like.” — artist Willie Birch, on John T. Scott
John T. Scott
American June 30 1940 in New Orleans, LA
About the Artist
John T. Scott was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and collagist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned a BA at the Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and an MFA from Michigan State University in East Lansing, where he studied under painter Charles Pollock. He also taught at Xavier University for 40 years.
Among Scott’s awards and honors received are a grant to study under sculptor George Rickey, an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Michigan State University, an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Tulane University in New Orleans, and a MacArthur “Genius Grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
His works are in several permanent collections including The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, The Louisiana State University Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; The Amistad Research Center Collection at Tulane University in New Orleans, The Blanche and Norman C. Francis Collection at the Xavier University of Louisiana, Loyola University in New Orleans, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; The Scripps College in Claremont, California; The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC; Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in New Orleans, and the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.
Curriculum Connections
Suggested Topics for World History and Visual Literacy
World History, Visual Literacy
The archives of history
have manifold reference points and are opening up to
public access to offer new narratives based on the
documents and evidence that exist, including first-
person notes and recorded interviews. As new
resources become available and new evidence comes
to light, an “archival fever” has arisen among artists who
incorporate found photographs and documents into
their artwork and offer profound, documented evidence
and versions of history that may have been hidden, denied, or misrepresented previously.
Our abilities as viewers to understand the messages and connections that the artists hope their imagery will convey is largely based on the extent of our own experi-
ences and information that we bring to viewing and interpreting the artwork. In many countries, these types of messages are not brought to broad public attention and are often considered subversive.
Questions to Consider
- What role does protest-art play in society?
- How have artists participated in the subversion of authorities and/or the status quo?
- Do you know any examples of protest-art? Can you think of printed images that were created as acts of protest or subversion? Are there any in the Artura.org database?
- What is the origin of the word “ghetto”?