This groundbreaking volume is a long-overdue consideration of the life and work of Joe Jones (1909?1963), an American scene painter and social realist from St. Louis. The book examines Jones's meteoric rise from humble housepainter to established artist of national importance and recognition. It considers his work in terms of its modernism, relationship to Communism and issues of race, as well as the artist's involvement with locale, ideas about authenticty and social commitment, and the aesthetic debates of the 1930s.

Five essays place Joe Jones in social and...