JACKSONEVERETTGEEKRESS

Interview with Everett Gee Jackson, 1981

 

1981-02-03

 

Kress, Paul and Rita

Everett Gee Jackson grew up in the rural east Texas town of Mexia. He learned to paint in the impressionist style at the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1923. That same year Jackson traveled to Mexico with fellow artist and friend Lowell Houser, moving from Guadalajara to Guanajuato to Oaxaca to Mexico City. After returning to the United States, Jackson settled in San Diego and began working at the Art department at San Diego State College, where eventually he became department chair in addition to being recognized as one of San Diego's most important artists. The campus graduate student art gallery bears his name, and one of his best known works, Serra Museum Tower, San Diego, hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Jackson died in 1995. Jackson was an original member of the Contemporary Artists of San Diego group. In this interview totalling 89 minutes, Jackson discusses his education, his early trips to Mexico, and his marriage. He also talks about his meeting muralists Diego Rivera and Clemente Orozco, and the influences of Mexican artists on his painting style. Jackson discusses San Diego at length, including his tenure at SDSU as a professor and chair of the Art department, his introduction of pre-Columbian art history courses to the curriculum, and how he juggled teaching, painting, and social life. He concludes the interview with some observations on teaching and studying painting, and an explanation of his personal painting style.

Artists; Teachers; Everett Gee Jackson; Paul Kress; Rita Kress; Interviews; Oral histories; Contemporary Artists of San Diego; Painting; San Diego State University School of Art + Design; San Diego; Professors; Faculty members; Art history; Lowell Houser; Diego Rivera; Clemente Orozco; Painters

 

 

© San Diego State University. All rights reserved.

 

 

English

 

Audiotape

01:29:07

No

 

 

 

Audio

MP3

113.77 MB