Leo Martínez
The Harlem Renaissance was a rich period of cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and lead up to World War II (the 1930s). Artists associated with the movement aimed to take control of the representation of their people, creating a new repertoire of images that asserted pride in black life and identity, and expressed a rising consciousness of inequality and discrimination. The movement set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement of the 1950s-1970s. This text will explore the influence that the Harlem Renaissance had on painting.
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What You'll Learn
Aaron Douglas's influence
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of rich cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War II (the 1930s). Artists associated with the movement asserted pride in black life and identity, a rising consciousness of inequality and discrimination, and an interest in the rapidly changing modern world.
Aaron Douglas, born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1899, was an American painter, illustrator, and visual arts educator. He played a leading role in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished and influential visual artists of the movement.
Douglas moved to New York City in 1925, where he joined the burgeoning arts scene in Harlem. He studied with the German-born artist Winold Reiss, whose paintings reflected the Art Deco style. Reiss encouraged Douglas to work with African-centric themes to create a sense of unity among African Americans. Through his art, Douglas addressed social issues around race and segregation in the United States by utilizing African-centric imagery. He developed a distinctive style that combined influences from African American folk art and African art with Art Deco stylization. He also drew upon the flat profile designs of ancient Egyptian art and what he called the abstract qualities of spirituals and jazz.
Douglas's iconography linked Christian subjects and black subject matter to convey racial pride and spiritual longing in an influential modernist style. His stylized, silhouette-like rendering of recognizably Black characters, imbued with qualities of spiritual yearning, became closely identified with the Harlem Renaissance. He set the stage for young African-American artists to enter the public-arts realm through his involvement with the Harlem Artists Guild, of which he served as president in 1935.
Douglas also had a significant influence as an educator. In 1944, he founded the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he mentored several generations of students before retiring in 1966. He encouraged his students to study African-American history to fully understand the necessity for African-American art in a predominantly white society.
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Jazz and blues influence
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural movement of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theatre, politics, and scholarship. Centred in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, it spanned the 1920s and 1930s.
Jazz and blues music were central to the Harlem Renaissance. The blues, performed by the likes of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and Billie Holiday, drew upon the tradition of spirituals. These blues expressed personal woes, lost love, hard times, and the troubles within the community. Jazz performers and composers such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Fletcher Henderson were extremely talented and laid the foundations for future musicians.
The jazz musician Duke Ellington was influenced by the writings of Alain Locke, an intellectual, impresario, and leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Locke advocated for black visual artists to explore the distinctive character of their experiences and culture. Jazz is a hybrid art form with many influences, including West African music.
Aaron Douglas, the signature artist of the Harlem Renaissance, turned away from traditional landscape painting. Influenced by Art Deco, the flat profile designs of ancient Egyptian art, and what he called the abstract qualities of spirituals, Douglas created a style of geometrical figural representation when dealing with "Negro" subject matter. His stylized, silhouette-like rendering of recognisably Black characters, imbued with qualities of spiritual yearning and racial pride, became closely identified with the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas often depicted musical instruments and people dancing in his art.
Norman Lewis was also attuned to the importance of jazz and blues music, especially growing up in Harlem during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance. His work shows a modern, abstract quality while capturing the sense of music produced by the quartet of musicians, who seem to bob in the space of the picture, emulating the rhythm of the music.
Poets of the Harlem Renaissance were inspired to tie threads of African-American culture into their poems, and jazz poetry was heavily developed during this time. Langston Hughes wrote the notable jazz poem "The Weary Blues". Through their literature, black authors gave a voice to the African-American identity and strived for a community of support and acceptance.
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European art influence
The Harlem Renaissance was a rich period of cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and World War II (the 1930s). It was a time when artists celebrated their heritage and explored themes from West African, Southern, and urban traditions in their work.
Aaron Douglas, a leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance, studied under German artist Winold Reiss, whose work reflected the Art Deco style. Douglas developed a distinctive style that combined influences from African American folk art and African art with Art Deco stylization. He created a unique style of geometrical figural representation when dealing with "Negro" subject matter, imbuing his work with qualities of spiritual yearning and racial pride.
Another artist, Richmond Barthé, worked in a realistic style, representing his subjects in a nuanced and sympathetic light, challenging the way Black Americans had previously been depicted in art.
Additionally, artists of the Harlem Renaissance turned to the art of antiquity, such as Egyptian sculptural reliefs, which gained popularity due to the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. Printmakers like James Lesesne Wells and Hale Woodruff drew from both African and European artistic influences to create streamlined approaches in their work.
Finally, some artists of the Harlem Renaissance, like Archibald John Motley Jr., had a mixed racial heritage that influenced their work. Motley's art drew on his diverse background, including his European ancestry, and his work has been described as anticipating the use of stereotypes and exaggeration by later artists.
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African art influence
The Harlem Renaissance was a rich period of cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and World War II (the 1930s). Artists associated with the movement asserted pride in black life and identity, a rising consciousness of inequality and discrimination, and an interest in the rapidly changing modern world.
The visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance were a dynamic collective, drawing upon African aesthetic legacies to portray Black subjects in a sensitive and modern manner. They turned to the art of antiquity, such as Egyptian sculptural reliefs, which had gained popularity due to the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922.
Aaron Douglas became a leader within the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. He moved from Kansas to New York City, where he studied under the German artist Winold Reiss, whose work reflected the Art Deco style. Reiss was also an advocate of Alain Locke's writings, and he and Douglas illustrated the first edition of Locke's "New Negro: An Interpretation" in 1925. Through his work, Douglas developed a unique style that combined influences from African American folk art and African art with Art Deco stylization. He drew upon African and American aesthetics to develop his visual language, creating illustrations and large-scale multi-panelled murals. Douglas's work linked Christian subjects and black subject matter to convey racial pride and spiritual longing in an influential modernist style.
Augusta Savage was another leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance. She studied African art and culture at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library. After studying in Paris, Savage returned to Harlem in 1932, where she was elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1934. She worked as an art teacher at the Harlem library and opened her own studio. She established the Harlem Artists Guild, the Harlem Art Workshop, and the Harlem Community Artist Center, encouraging her students to create works that reflected their African American identity.
Other notable figures include the painter Palmer C. Hayden, who interpreted Black folklore and working-class life; Archibald J. Motley, known for his paintings of urban Black social life and realistic portraits of refined "New Negro" types; and Richmond Barthé, a sculptor who worked in a realistic style, representing his subjects in a nuanced and sympathetic light.
These artists helped modernize and reclaim African American portrayals through groundbreaking painting, sculpture, and photography. They drew upon African aesthetic legacies to portray Black subjects with sensitivity and modernity, countering racial stereotypes and prejudices through Black self-representation.
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Racial pride in art
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of rich cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I in 1917 and the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Artists associated with the movement asserted pride in black life and identity, and many experienced a freedom of expression through the arts for the first time.
The movement set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement of the 1950s to 1970s, which focused on political power for black people. The Black Arts Movement, in particular, used art for political gain, and the art expressed themes of black pride and power.
Artists of the Harlem Renaissance focused on themes such as the influence of slavery, black identity, community, and the everyday experience of black people. Alain Locke's influential anthology, The New Negro, published in 1925, became an emblem of the Harlem Renaissance. In it, he contrasted the "old Negro," beaten down by the legacy of slavery, with the "new Negro," who could start over in northern cities. Locke emphasized "the necessity for fuller, truer self-expression" to achieve spiritual emancipation.
Aaron Douglas became a leader within the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Influenced by Art Deco, the flat profile designs of ancient Egyptian art, and what he called the abstract qualities of spirituals, Douglas created his own style of geometrical figural representation in dealing with “Negro” subject matter. His stylized, silhouette-like rendering of recognizably Black characters, imbued with qualities of spiritual yearning and racial pride, became closely identified with the Harlem Renaissance.
Douglas and fellow visual artists Hale Woodruff and Archibald John Motley Jr. lived in Paris for periods of time to paint and study European art, whose influences they absorbed in their work. Archibald J. Motley, for example, was best known for his paintings of urban Black social life and his realistic portraits of refined “New Negro” types.
In conclusion, the Harlem Renaissance had a profound influence on subsequent artistic movements, including the Black Arts Movement, by enabling black artists to express their racial pride and power through their art.
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Frequently asked questions
Common themes in the paintings of the Harlem Renaissance included the influence of the experience of slavery, African-American folk traditions, the effects of institutional racism, and the question of how to convey the experience of modern black life in the urban North.
The Harlem Renaissance set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement of the 1950s-1970s. Both these movements focused on political power for Black people.
The painters of the Harlem Renaissance drew on a variety of influences, including European modernists, the Art Deco style, Egyptian art, African art, and African-American folk art.
