Barbara Jones-Hogu

Within AFRICOBRA, Jones-Hogu was as much theorist as practitioner. Her 1973^[1] statement of aesthetic principles remains one of the clearest articulations of the group's visual philosophy: figures must be frontal and direct to stress strength and directness; lettering should be integrated into the composition as a visual element rather than a headline; the image must identify problems and offer solutions. Her five formal principles, including free symmetry (syncopated rhythmic repetition) and mimesis at midpoint (the exact point between abstraction and naturalism), drew on parallels with Yoruba art criticism identified by scholar Robert Farris Thompson.

Her printed works from the late 1960s and early 1970s combine bold colour, repeated text, and figurative imagery in a mode closer to agitprop than fine-art printmaking. Unite (1969^[1], revised 1971), partly inspired by the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, entered the collection of the Tate Modern. Relate to Your Heritage (1971), a large-format screenprint, is held at the Brooklyn Museum. Around 1973, she switched from painting to printmaking after paint fumes affected her son's health, and later opened her own print shop.

Jones-Hogu taught printmaking for decades. Her first solo museum retrospective was held at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago in 2018, the year after her death. Work from her estate is held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Museum of African American^[1] History and Culture.