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Herb Jackson Receives N.C.'s Highest Civilian Honor For Lifetime Achievement in Fine Arts
Jackson will receive the award in Fine Arts in a ceremony that also honors eight other outstanding North Carolinians for their lifetime achievements in public service, literature, and science. Jackson is a 1967 Davidson graduate who has taught at the college since 1969. He served as chair of the art department for 17 years, and currently holds the title of William Williamson Professor of Art. Jackson responded, "I'm deeply honored. What can you feel but humility when your life's work is recognized publicly?" Other receiving awards are Frank Daniels Jr. for Public Service, Julia Jones Daniels for Public Service, Allan Gurganus for Literature, Frank L. Horton for Fine Arts, Jill McCorkle for Literature, Robert G. Parr for Science, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen for Science, and Gen. Hugh Shelton for Public Service.
The awards committee was chaired by Dr. Christopher Fordham, and included novelist and UNC-Chapel Hill professor Doris Betts, Durham interior designer Carolyn Collins, Asheville attorney John S. Stevens and Joseph Rowand of Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill. The awards committee noted that Jackson is considered by many to be the state's most noted current abstract painter. The citation said, "His textured, multihued and layered paintings hint at an inner life while his creative talent and energy inspires students. Through mythical and poetic landscapes, the painter explores the South's psychic roots." Jackson, a Raleigh native, says he can't remember a time when he didn't paint. As a teenager he won his first award at a juried exhibition held at the N.C. Museum of Art and held his first one-person show in 1964. Following his Davidson graduation, he received a M.F.A. in painting from UNC Chapel Hill in 1970.
He has had more than 100 one-person exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, along with group exhibitions. His work is in over 80 museum collections including the British Museum in London and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. He recently collaborated with N.C. Dance Theater director Pierre Bonnefoux on a unique ballet piece that featured the evolution of one of his paintings. The painting in its various stages of completion was projected onto the stage of the Blumenthal Center Belk Theatre in Charlotte, with dancers in white unitards moving through the image. Jackson is listed in "Who's Who in American Art" and "Who's Who in
America." In addition to creating his own artwork, he teaches five studio
classes each year. One of his outstanding accomplishments at Davidson
was to lead the college in planning for construction of its state-of-the-art
facility, the Katherine
and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center which opened in 1993.
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