Harlem, a neighborhood in New York, had a great population of African Americans living there who had moved to Harlem throughout the Great Migration. Throughout the 1920's in America Harlem experienced an intellectual and cultural explosion that came to be known as The Harlem Renaissance. Harlem became to be known as a cultural center for African Americans filled with artist, musicians, poets, and writers were all a big part of The Harlem Renaissance. Many of these artists from the Harlem Renaissance portrayed aspects of African American life in America and the stereotypes that were portrayed against African Americans.
The first artist and painting I will go into is Jacob Lawrence and his painting, "The Builders".
"The Builders" - Jacob Lawrence
This painting done in 1947 by Jacob Lawrence, an American painter, who specialized in African-American historical subjects and had a series portraying the African migration from Southern United States to the Northern United States. This piece of artwork portrays much from the Harlem Renaissance which focused on connecting African American culture with contemporary themes. This artwork portrays the teamwork that many African American went through to build their communities and get where they are. Some of the elements that stood out to me were the lines, and blocks in this art. That really helps certain elements to stand out such as the structure they are building and helps show more structure to the artwork itself.
"Les Fétiches" - Lois Mailou Jones
This painting was done in 1938, by Lois Mailou Jones, another influential Harlem Renaissance artist. This is one of her best known paintings, which now is portrayed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. This painting portrays five different African American masks which are overlapping one another. Jones has been said to have painted this in order to "draw strength and protection from her cultural heritage in the face of prejudice" (Smithsonian American Art Museum). Much of Jones' work portrayed her pride in her heritage, being her African roots, but also her American ancestry. The dark colors used in this particular painting help to portray a mysterious element to the artwork, drawing in some of the spirituality of the artwork and the African American background.
"Let My People Go" - Aaron Douglas
This final painting was done by Aaron Douglas, was done in 1935 in America. Aaron Douglas specialized in painting many mural for building that portrayed much of "black life". This particular painting uses the story from the Bible in Exodus where the Israelites were led out of captivity by Moses. This story is one that many enslaved people identified with and abolitionists used to help their cause for freedom. Douglas was known as the preeminent muralist from the Harlem Renaissance period with most of his murals portraying scenes like this and many murals being part of a series of paintings. The colors in this painting help to show some of the darkness that many African Americans were in while they were enslaved, but the hope was coming as shown in the ray of light. The civil rights movement was gaining momentum and African Americans were gaining more and more rights.
Personally, I really like much of the art from the Harlem Renaissance. I think it is a really cool kind of art to collect and the history behind many of these pieces of art is super interesting to learn about. It is important to know this period of history in American history, and learn from it as well. Much of the artwork from the Harlem Renaissance featured racial issues and equality issues that were going on in America at that time, as well as just portraying aspects of African American life during that time.
References
Les Fétiches (no date) Smithsonian American Art Museum. Available at: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/les-fetiches-31947
Let My People Go (no date) Metmuseum.org. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/676458
I was anxious to read your blog post when I saw you had chosen to do the Harlem Renaissance. Much of our class, including myself, went with the influence of Early Modernism era art on the Great Depression, so I was excited to see a different topic. The three art pieces you chose to showcase all have other stereotypes the African American community faced. Still, I like the positive analysis and deeper meaning of what message the artists were portraying in their works. During my Writing in the Humanities class, we studied West African literature; I enjoyed all the stories we were given to read. African culture is very elaborate; arts and music are incorporated within all aspects of their lives, the food they gather, the meals they prepare, and stories about their history are talked about theatrically. Culturally they find the beauty and can make something as simple as a cola nut sound fascinating; I could see this in the artworks you shared. Augusta Savage, whom I showcased on my blog, was an African American woman associated with the Harlem Resistance. She was a sculptor, art teacher, and director of the Harlem Community Art Center, which she had to push hard to gain funding from the Federal Arts Project to get up and going; she was a strong voice for equality for African American artists. Her life story is inspiring; despite her struggles, racial and financial, she accomplished so much!
ReplyDeleteYou scratched the surface well with background information on the Harlem Resistance and the meanings behind the artworks you chose to share, but I was itching to know more! A reader like myself who needs and wants to learn more about the history of the Harlem Resistance would have appreciated more information about the art movement occurring in the African American communities in Harlem. I would have enjoyed learning a bit of backstory on the artists. Were they encouraging arts within the community for a specific reason? What types of struggles occurred for the artists? What styles and topics did they incorporate within their works?
Thank you for the blog post exhibiting the influence of the Harlem Resistance artwork during the Early Modern era! The art pieces are lovely, and the analyses of their deeper meanings were nicely depicted.
Hi Faith! I like that you chose to exhibit art work related to the Harlem Renaissance. In the first photo you chose, I thought it was interesting how the shapes really blended together. I had to look hard in certain areas to figure out what was what. From a distance I could barely tell that there weren’t just African Americans within the painting, but also White males displayed all working together on this project. I think it’s because of the color choices that everything seems to blend together. The only color that really stood out was the bright red that was used. To me this painting seemed to give off an air of team work, which I’m somewhat surprised about from this time period, but I have a feeling I might be missing something since you did state that it reflects some of the stereotypical views of that time. The lines are certainly defined with not a lot of blending involved. It almost looks like a collage in a way. I do love the mask painting as well done by Jones. I actually thought it was just one mask at first glance before seeing your description. It gives somewhat a mystical impression and makes me wonder what the different masks represented. This painting is quite interesting since it has a few squiggly white and curved lines that seem to represent movement in a way. Out of the three choices, I truly love the third one. It reminds me of a style similar to the one in the Harry Potter movies that shows an animation of the story “The Tale of Three Brothers.” Compared to all of the eras that we’ve studied, this style is quite unique in comparison. It reminds me of the artwork that is currently popular in the digital art industry. I like that it’s mainly green, gray, and black with different hues of each. There seems to be yellow used, but still seems to be in the yellow/green category. The sun shining on the man gives me a feeling of hope that he is about to be blessed with some miracle or gift, maybe of freedom?
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