Creativity After Combat

John Paul Jones

Born in a small town in Iowa, John Paul Jones (1924-1999) had an accomplished fifty-year career as a fine-art printmaker, painter, sculptor, as well as a devoted professor at the University of California Irvine (1969-1990). Named after a famous naval officer of the Revolutionary War, Jones was greatly affected by his service in the U.S. Army 750th Field Artillery Battalion in Okinawa during World War II. This group of soldiers entered the Battle of Okinawa (often characterized as the single most brutal campaign in United States history) at its gory end, when flamethrower tanks and other terrifying weapons were used to torch miles of tunnels in an attempt to flush out the Japanese underground command center. The 750th Battalion was responsible for dealing with the aftermath of this carnage, largely by collecting bodies and conducting mass cremations – a task that required three weeks of constant work.  

Like most veterans of the Battle of Okinawa, John Paul Jones did not generally discuss his war experiences with friends or family. Instead, it seems that Jones turned to his artistic practice as a source of expression and contemplation. His works present the quiet anguish and permeating sense of isolation that Jones likely experienced upon his return to the United States.

Despite experiencing true horrors, Jones never lost his love for beauty and poetry. In his later works, Jones explored pure abstraction and minimalist sculpture, writing in his private notes: “Art: a single gesture packed with meaning; a crucial instant frozen in time, simple and beautiful.”

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