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The Death of Giants: A Tribute to
John Scott
By Jerry W.
Ward, Jr.
John T. Scott
is dead. Our country has lost one more national
treasure. New Orleans has lost an artist whose
brilliant mind made his birthplace more beautiful,
more vibrant, more a barometer of the human capacity
for greatness. Scott was to sight what our most
inspired jazz musicians/poets are to sound.
Scott, like
Max Roach, was a giant of the twentieth century.
Roach and Scott once had a public conversation at
the Zora Neale Hurston Festival. Their exchange was
awesome, a perfect gem displayed on crushed
blueblack velvet. When two artists who are
thoroughly dedicated to their chosen craft and to
people share profound ideas, magic happens. Such
nobility. Such truth. Such elegance. Such an aural
tapestry of motion.
In 2005,
Scott’s importance was well documented in Circle
Dance, a major retrospective of his work at the New
Orleans Museum of Art. Thousands came to see the
evidence of his achievement. Hundreds came to listen
to Scott talk about his work and about his regard
for the place of art in the education of young
people. I needed to hear again something Scott told
me in the late 1970s about his “diddly bow”
construction series. I went to the exhibit to ask
him about discipline, about the importance of
mathematics, chemistry, and physics in the making of
art. His answers were as precise as the angles of
his sculpture, the lines of his drawings, and the
certitude of texture and color in all his works.
Scott affixed
his signature and his thumbprint in my copy of the
Circle Dance catalog. But his having affixed
valuable lessons in my mind through his art, just as
Roach imprinted liberation sounds in my ears, is
what counts.
I am saddened
by the transitions of
Max Roach and John Scott, but I have also made
my peace with their absence. I did tell both of them
when they were alive that their works had touched my
life.
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Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott
is a celebration of this renowned
artist’s work in printmaking, sculpture,
collage, and painting produced over the
course of a nearly forty-year career.
Published in conjunction with an exhibit
of the same name at the New Orleans
Museum of Art, Circle Dance features 100
dazzling color photographs of Scott’s
art, from his earliest productions in
cast bronze, welded steel, and
printmaking, to his most recent forays
into site-specific public art and
mammoth works on paper.
Born in 1940 and reared in New Orleans,
John T. Scott has produced work shaped
largely by diverse Afrocentric and
distinctly local traditions. He draws
heavily upon his African American
heritage, asserting that African culture
has influenced people in his hometown
more than any other U.S. city. |
His art
reflects elements of history, struggle, and a
triumphant creative spirit. Black musical forms
such as jazz, blues, and gospel have been
central to Scott’s art, which itself has been
described as "optical jazz." In his analysis
Richard J. Powell recognizes in Scott’s art "a
performance-based spirit and an improvisational
quality, bold color, and visual syncopation."
Scott’s work has been featured
in scores of gallery and museum
exhibitions, and he has received
numerous awards and prizes. In 1992
he was honored for his career
accomplishments with a MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship. Featuring a
foreword by Ellis Marsalis and an
appreciation by New Orleans arts
patron, Mrs. Lindy Boggs, Circle
Dance offers the best introduction
possible to the work of this
remarkable artist.
Circle Dance: The Art of John T.
Scott features 100 color
reproductions that should appeal to
anyone with an interest in
contemporary African American art.
Offers text by Richard Powell, a
noted author and expert on African
American art. New Orleans
resident Ellis Marsalis, jazz
pianist and longtime friend wrote
the Foreword. |
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John T. Scott (1940-2007), artist and educator,
one of New Orleans' most nationally renowned and
respected visual artists, died Saturday morning at
Methodist Hospital in Houston. He was 67. . . . Mr. Scott, a Xavier University art professor since
1965, was best known for large-scale abstract sculptures
that can be found in Woldenberg Park, De Saix Circle,
City Park and at the New Orleans Museum of Art. . . . In 1992, Mr. Scott received a $315,000 John D.
MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as a "MacArthur
genius grant," in recognition of his work. . . .
One of six children, Mr. Scott was born on a farm in
Gentilly that supplied meat and produce to Kolb's, then
a well-known Central Business District restaurant. His
father was the Kolbs' chauffeur. When he was 7, his
family moved to the Lower 9th Ward. In 1958, Mr. Scott
graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and
began his formal art studies. He received a bachelor of
arts degree from Xavier University and a master of fine
arts degree from Michigan State University in 1965.
Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott. Doug MacCash. NOLA
Blog
Other sources:
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa313.htm /
http://www.leh.org/artofjohnscott/js_index.html
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John Scott designed the FST logo with the fist and
chain from the theater's theme "strong black hands
to break the shackles of the mind." He sketched it
on the theater's double doors on the corner of
Dryades and Erato. But it was yours truly who
actually painted it. In doing that I felt that just
a small portion of his greatness was passed on to
me.
—Chakula
Cha Jua
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I knew John Scott, had visited his studio on
occasion, and admired him greatly; although, he was
not a close personal friend. He and his wife lived
right in the neighborhood until the storm. He's
greatly missed; such a warm and wonderful presence.
—Red
Beans and Ricely Thankful and Hopeful, Mona Lisa
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Rudy, in case others send you
texts re Scott, you might—if you choose to—want to attach some photos as part of the John T.
Scott site you were considering. I took the photos I
am forwarding you the last week of March, 2005, in
Scott's studio. I know you have already posted
pictures of his work from the May, 2005,
retrospective curated at the New Orleans Museum of
Art, but I have/had always been fascinated by the
work that went on in his studio. His studio for me
was the real gallery temple, which is why, except for one photo here, six of the
ones I'm sending you are of the spirit in the
studio. The spirit and soul always dwelled where
the work emerged. Use them if
appropriate.
—Mackie
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STUDIO
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WORKBENCH [MADE BY SCOTT]
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WORKBENCH [MADE BY
SCOTT] |
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ARTWORK |
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ARTWORK |
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TEACHING |
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NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (
NPR)
Remembrances / New Orleans Native Sculptor
John T. Scott Dies
By Joel Rose
Listen
Now [4 min 5 sec] add to playlist --
NPR
All Things
Considered, September 4, 2007 · John T. Scott
was born in Gentilly and raised in the Lower
Ninth Ward. He used to say he tried to capture
the musicality of New Orleans in the colors and
rhythms of his sculptures. He died Saturday at
the age of 67.
Scott
was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, also
known as the "genius grant." He fled his
hometown just before Hurricane Katrina struck,
and he settled in Houston. Scott struggled with
pulmonary fibrosis and had both lungs replaced.
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WWNO
John Scott
Date: September 4, 2002
Sculptor
John Scott has made some of the most
distinctive, and distinguished, pieces of public
art to grace New Orleans. From Woldenberg Park
to the New Orleans Museum of Art -- and many
spots in between—his work has become part of the
fabric of the city.
John Scott
recently sat down with WWNO's Jacqueline Bishop
to talk about his life as a Louisiana Artist ...
[The first link leads to the second one.]
WWNO /
Public Broadcasting
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posted 2
September 2007 |
