A. B. Jackson (American, 1925-1981), Untitled (Four Figures)

Watercolor and black crayon on paper, unsigned, matted and framed under glass.

Sight size 14 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.

By descent through the family of Mary Jo and Dick Bell, Raleigh, North Carolina

Alexander Brooks Jackson, known as A. B. Jackson, was an American painter celebrated for his abstract figure paintings and portraits. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, to a black father and an English mother, Jackson pursued his artistic education at Yale University, where he earned both his BFA and MFA under the mentorship of Josef Albers.

Jackson began his career as a designer before transitioning to academia, teaching at Southern University and then Norfolk State University, where he spent a decade before becoming Old Dominion University's first black faculty member in 1967.

Jackson's work, characterized by its use of watercolors, pastels, charcoal, and acrylics, gained significant recognition, including best-in-show at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show in 1966 and inclusion in a Smithsonian Institution exhibition in 1968. His notable series "The Porch People" depicted residents of the Ghent district in Norfolk.

Good estate condition; not examined out of the frame.