John T. Scott

Ancestral Legacy by John T. Scott located in the campus courtyard of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans

John T. Scott (1940 - September 1, 2007) was an African-American sculptor, painter, printmaker and collagist.

Early life

Scott was born on a farm in Gentilly, a historic section of New Orleans, Louisiana. When he was 7 years old, his family moved to the Lower Ninth Ward.^[1]

Education and grants

After high school, he attended Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan in 1965, after which he returned to Xavier to teach. In 1995, Scott received an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Michigan State University and a Doctor of Humanities from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1997. In 1992, he was awarded the exclusive MacArthur Grant (also known as the "Genius Grant") from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He used the money to build a larger studio.

Works and commissions

Scott is best known for creating large woodcut prints and for his African-Caribbean-New Orleans-inspired kinetic sculptures. In 2005, he was the subject of a major retrospective exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art entitled "Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott."^[2] Scott was also commissioned to create several pieces that are placed throughout the City of New Orleans. These public works in New Orleans include Spirit Gates at the DeSaix Boulevard traffic circle (at St. Bernard and Gentilly Boulevards) in the Seventh Ward and River Spirit at Woldenberg Park along the Mississippi River near the Port of New Orleans.^[3] Scott had been quoted as saying that he tried to capture the musicality of New Orleans in the colors and rhythms of his sculptures.^[4]

Collections

John T. Scott’s works are exhibited in several permanent collections including:

• The Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans)
• The Louisiana State University Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
• The Amistad Research Center Collection at Tulane University (New Orleans)
• The Blanche and Norman C. Francis Collection at Xavier University of Louisiana (New Orleans)
• Loyola University (New Orleans)
• The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas)
• The Scripps College (Claremont, California)^[5]
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.)
• Fisk University (Nashville, Tennessee)
• [Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (New Orleans)^[2]

Death

Scott fled New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005 and settled in Houston, Texas. He died at Methodist Hospital in Houston after receiving two double-lung transplants and his long struggle with pulmonary fibrosis.^[6]

An exhibition called "Beyond Black" featuring Ed Clark, Eugene J. Martin and John T. Scott opened at the LSU Museum of Art, Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, LA, on January 28-May 8, 2011.

See also

• Sculpting
• MacArthur Fellowship Recipients of 1992
• Xavier University of Louisiana
• Gentilly, New Orleans
• Ninth Ward of New Orleans

External links

• Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
• John T. Scott’s 2005 Retrospective at NOMA
• Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott by Richard J. Powell
• Obituary of J.T. Scott by Holland Cotter in The New York Times
• Renowned N.O. artist John T. Scott dead at 67
• John T. Scott by John R. Kemp
• Somewhere in sculpture heaven, John T. Scott is smiling By Doug McCash
• John T. Scott's recovered art: See video By Doug MacCash,The Times-Picayune
• Press of John T. Scott at the Arthur Roger Gallery

References