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Harlem Renaissance Period
The Harlem Renaissance is exciting and important both because it encompassed such a wide array of creative forms and because it was the first real, concerted creative movement focused on the African American experience. In a very real sense, it is the origin point of a new culture's creative tradition. The art of this period introduced the world to a new aesthetic and, in many cases, new forms, in conjunction with a perspective and experience previously unknown to many. Years appx. -
Ethiopia by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
This period was a combination of forging new identity and recognizing connections to African and Egypt. Ethiopia, one of the period's earliest works, reflects the ties to native royalty, and challenges viewers to remember that the enslaved had lives before they were abducted. Reportedly, those who commissioned a sculpture representing African American contributions to society expected something quite different than Ethiopia. Image from the National Museum of African American History & Culture -
The Barrier by Claude McKay
McKay is considered one of the most powerful voices of the Renaissance. His most often-read poems are America and If We Must Die, but The Barrier, which was one of his earliest pieces, is notable because it speaks to both the very personal idea of being unable to be with the person you love due to skin color and the larger danger faced by Black men who were even perceived to be paying attention to a white woman. It does so using a traditional form and rhyme scheme. Image from Poemhunter.com -
Couple by James Van der Zee
Van der Zee was, perhaps, the most well-known photographer of the Harlem Renaissance. His work was intended to show African American people, families, and communities as they actually were rather than as common perception and the stereotypical images of the period showed them. Most of his portraits could easily be of people of any race, which not only demonstrated the universality of human experience, but also spoke to the importance of perception. Image from the National Gallery of Art -
Sahdji by Aaron Douglas
Generally considered the Father of African American art, Douglas explored numerous styles and themes over the course of his career. His collection includes realistic portraits, but also experiments in Cubism, Art Deco, and other styles -- often melded -- which explored the African American connection to the land and enslavement and their connection to Africa and Egypt. Sahdji (Tribal Woman) mixes styles originating in Europe with distinctly African tribal elements. Image from Artnet -
Siren of the Tropics featuring Josephine Baker
While this silent film was produced in Paris, it is considered a critical part of the Harlem Renaissance because Josephine Baker, who had lived and worked in New York for several years before moving abroad, was the first African American woman featured in a film and maintained ties to many of the artists working in Harlem during the period. Perhaps not remarkable as a film, Siren of the Tropics nonetheless inspired filmmakers and artists throughout the African Diaspora. Image from YouTube -
Sonnet by Alice Dunbar Nelson
Over the course of her career, Nelson wrote dozens of poems, several short stories, and numerous articles. The majority centered around African American life and experience. Some, however, such as Sonnet, focus on universal experience, and counters the idea that Black art and literature is only relevant to Black people. Sonnet, an excellent example of the form, focuses on the anti-industrial, back-to-nature theme seen in much mainstream poetry of the time. Image from Quotes and Concepts -
Textile Design for Cretonne by Loïs Mailou Jones
Over the course of her career, which lasted well into the late 21st century, Jones' work encompassed everything from portraits and landscapes to pattern images to collage-style paintings exploring the African American connection to Egypt and Africa. During the Renaissance, she most often depicted landscapes and African American people in realistic, approachable settings. Textile Design was, as its name implies, intended to be reproduced in textile. Image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum -
The Purple Flower by Marita Bonner
This one-act play is one of the earliest art dramas by an African American writer, and it continues to be relevant, not only in context of African American history and ongoing racial conflicts, but in context of poverty, gender disparity, and other situations where power imbalances cause a minority of people to benefit from the majority's labor. In The Purple Flower two sets of people exist in opposition: the White Devils and the "Us"es. Hence, the title of Jordan Peele's Us. Image from CUNY -
Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset
Though not her only novel, Plum Bun is perhaps Fauset's most acclaimed. Plum Bun tells the story of a woman who "passes" as white for many years, which enables her to earn a position in society that would have been impossible had she been known to be African American. Given the country's one-drop rule and still-present one-drop mentality, this play allowed -- and continues to allow -- readers/viewers to consider an aspect of African American life rarely discussed. Image from Goodreads -
West End Blues by King Oliver and Louis Armstrong
Scored by Joe "King" Oliver, perhaps the first significant jazz composer, and originally performed by his orchestra as an instrumental, it was later recorded (with lyrics by jazz great Clarence Williams) by Louis Armstrong, who is said to have brought jazz to the masses. This latter recording also introduced the world at large to the musical art of scatting and the freeform opening allows listeners to sink into the music with a certain sense of abandon. Image from Sheet Music Plus -
Gamin by Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage's best known work was Harp, a larger-than-life sculpture commissioned for the 1939 World's Fair to celebrate African American contributions to music. However, the piece that launched her career was Gamin, a sculpture study of her nephew
She won, for this piece, a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which was renewed for a second term, allowing her to study in Paris for four total years. Her work often blended realism with celebration of freedom. Image from the Smithsonian -
Head of a Boy by Richmond Barthé
Like many artists of the period, Barthé felt it was important to portray African Americans realistically and in a way that highlighted their humanity. Most popular culture images of African Americans at the time were heavily caricaturized and included unflatteringly exaggerated features, particularly of hair, lips, skin color, and the female body. Sculptures such as Barthé's humanized African American faces and bodies, returning their dignity. Image from the National Gallery of Art -
The Lindy Hop, originator unknown
While the actual origination date of this dance is unknown, it was broadly popular across racial lines in the very late 20s through the 40s. It was also the precursor of swing, the jitterbug, and numerous other dance forms. "The Hop" is particularly important because it was danced to jazz, a characteristically African American music form mainstreamed during the Renaissance. Several major artists of the period memorialized The Hop in painting and sculpture. Image from Vintage News Daily -
The Janitor Who Paints by Palmer Hayden
This painting is often recognized both for its aesthetic appeal and for its commentary on social conditions during the Renaissance. Few African American artists were able to support themselves solely through their art. Since African Americans were still, at the time, restricted to certain types of jobs, many fed their families via manual labor and low-level service income and were sometimes considered by mainstream critics to be hobbyists, regardless of their skill. Image from the Smithsonian -
Popo and Fifina by Langston Hughes and Ana Bontemps
Hughes, generally considered the most significant voice of the Renaissance, is best known for his poetry, particularly the way he reimagined and reconstructed form and space. A collaboration with his lesser-known peer Bontemps, this is a children's book. Released without illustrations in 1932, before modern awards were available, it garnered immediate critical acclaim for its language and style. It was also likely the first children's book to feature Black kids positively. Image from Goodreads -
Black Belt by Archibald J. Motley Jr.
Black Belt is striking not only for its glowing colors and flowing lines, but for its depiction of a well-known African American neighborhood as normal and appealing. It speaks not only to the idea of African American community but to the wider experience of the bustle and mix of people common to city life. Perceived by outsiders as a jazz strip, the Black Belt was also a residential neighborhood with corner markets and local restaurants. Image from Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University -
Girl in Red Dress by Laura Wheeler Waring
Waring was, predominantly, a portrait artist, and she painted many prominent figures during the late Renaissance and into the next few decades. Girl in Red Dress is considered one of her finer art pieces because it does not appear to have been commissioned by anyone and the subject is unidentified. This may have allowed the artist more discretion. The result is a painting that portrays African American youth as attractive, modest, and normal, even in party attire. Image from the Smithsonian -
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This novel, though received with mixed feelings at its initial release (most likely due to the strong, unapologetic, African American woman hero), was re-released to wide acclaim in the 1970s. By the early 2000s, it had become one of the most commonly read texts in not only African American literature classes, but in women's literature classes as well. This is due in part to its honest, sometimes shocking, portrayals, but in the main for the excellence of Hurston's prose. Image from Goodreads -
The Amistad Murals by Hale Woodruff
By the 1920s, the white north began to try to put slavery - and failed reconstruction - firmly in the past. Many Harlem Renaissance artists chose to use their art to memorialize and illustrate the horrors of the slave trade. Filled with lively color and distinct imagery, the Amistad Murals constituted perhaps the largest of these endeavors. They represent, from the enslaved perspective, a real event that had been, up until then, been told only from the opposite perspective. Image from NPR -
Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
First performed in 1939 as the Harlem Renaissance waned, Strange Fruit is considered one of the first protest songs. Holiday's live performance added to the song's already eerie arrangement and dark theme. She invariably sang it in a darkened room with only a spotlight on her face, which went out as she concluded. When the lights went up, she was gone and did not return for encores. Thus the piece, originally a pseudonymous poem, became music, then performance art. Image from Residentmusic.com
