Joseph Holston - The Legacy Continues

Joseph Holston’s cubist abstractionist style has evolved over a fine arts career spanning more than twenty-five years. Born in Washington, DC, his career as a painter and printmaker began with years of self-study, augmented by study with renowned artists Marcos Blahove in Washington, and with Richard Goetz in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He also attended Howard University and Montgomery College in Maryland, and enjoyed invaluable advice and encouragement from Harlem Renaissance Artists Lois Mailou Jones and James Wells.

Mr. Holston is a critically acclaimed artist who has exhibited at numerous museums and institutions. His complete biography, along with further information about his work, is available at his Web site, www.holstonart.com.

Of his work, Holston says:

“I have spent my entire career working to perfect my craft as a multi-medium artist. I started out painting and drawing. But as I began to explore other mediums, I discovered that each has its own unique characteristics, its own unique capacity to give voice to my work in a way that no other medium could. My challenge is to master the medium’s technical aspects, while at the same time recognizing that it contains within it a spirit that drives me in the creation of a particular and individual work of art. For me, for example, the challenge in etching is to make a cold metal plate come to life.

“I enjoy where I am now in my career. I have had to work hard in order to be able to create. I consider that my art career has been divided in two parts. During the first phase, I learned to represent – to create works that copied nature. The second period has required me to delve deeply into my spiritual self and to find my own voice. I seek to use different mediums to speak in a way that never has been spoken before.”

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The Black Renaissance in Washington, D.C., 1920-1930s
http://www.dclibrary.org/blkren/ | last updated June 20, 2003