Frederick Jones Jr. was an African American artist renown for his vibrant figure paintings. Jones is associated with the Social Realism movement popular during the times of the Works Progress Administration. His father was a pharmacist and owned his own store.

Eventually Jones would relocate to Chicago. He was working for a Coca Cola company and some owners and managers saw his work and took a shine to his personality. It was arranged for the artist to move to Chicago, and to attend the Art Institute of Chicago and have Coca Cola company pick up the bill.

In 1930 Jones was able to sell his first painting. He made $25 on the project and was thrilled. He received this great mentoring whilst still in high school.

Jones spent much of his career based out of Chicago and painted the legendary jazz musicians of the time including Louis Armstrong.

The artist was great friends with painter Hughie Lee Smith, also an African American painter working in a Surrealist manner.

Bio courtesy of www.diattaart.wordpress.com. Link to full bio:

https://diattaart.wordpress.com/tag/frederick-jones/