Academic Kobena Mercer famously noted the lack of information pertaining to the history of black art.

Curator, writer and critic Eddie Chambers once described black art as,

“Art made by black people, for black people, which examines the black experience in its content.”

However, in an age where so many black artists refer to themselves as “post black,” this definition seems inadequate.

A new black consciousness evolved during the 1960s as a consequence of various major events which highlighted the black struggle. The high profile deaths of Dr Martin Luther King and Malcom X highlighted the fight of the Civil Rights movement. In an attempt to align themselves psychologically with the major changes that were taking place, Young African Americans slowly changed the way they referred to themselves from “Negro” to the seemingly more assertive “black.”

The media reported on world events more than ever before prompting many artists to respond to this increased media coverage in a variety of ways. The Civil Rights Yearbook 1964 a satirical book by Jeff Donaldson, placed a spotlight on the power that the media had to affect public opinion on the subject of race.

In 1966, Andrew Salkey, Edward Kamau Brathwaite and John LaRose established the Caribbean Artists Movement in the UK. Active between 1966 and 1971, the group was created to help form an aesthetic informed by their own cultural heritage and to encourage recognition of West Indian art forms in the UK. The movement went on to inspire many black visual artists to produce work in this vein and included artists Ronald Moody, Errol Lloyd and Winston Branch.

Many black artists of the 70s seemed to move towards abstraction. Abstraction provided a medium through which black artists shared their mood and ideals. Artist Jack Whitten acknowledged that being “black” showed itself in his work, without actually being able to define precisely what was black about it. Frank Bowling, a Guyanese born artist, trained in the UK became most known for his controversial essays on the subject of blackness in art, especially his 1971 essay, “Is Black Art about Colour.”

Richard Powells, “Black Art A Cultural History,” points to the fact that many artists were cautious of representing black individuals as nude until the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s. Powells reasoned that this may have been due to well founded anxiety about potentially being accused of being either a pornographer or a racist. Historically speaking, many social scientists had assumed wrongly that black people were morally corrupt with various sexual pathologies. This may have contributed in a major way to this self censorship. From the the time of the sexual revolution onwards, various artists have used the black nude to conceptualise social and political themes. In 1971, Artist Dana C Chandler, used a chained erect black male penis, inside a jail cell against the backdrop of a mock American flag to illustrate his perception of the fears that black males had surrounding the black power movement. Faith Ringold examined the black female nude from a political and personal perspective through her paintings.

1980’s was defined as the decade of art institutionalization in the African diaspora and was marked in the USA by the Smithsonian museum purchasing countless works by black artists.

Various social and political events including the Brixton riots of 1981 impacted the UK art scene during the 80s. At the time, despite achieving world wide success, many black artists experienced extreme difficulty in being accepted by the British arts establishment. In response, a group of artists got together and formed the BLK Art Group. Members included Claudette Johnson, Keith Piper, Donald Rodney and Marlene Smith. The landmark exhibition, “Black Art: Plotting the Course,” curated by founding member Eddie Chambers was launched in 1981. The exhibition was a pivotal moment for black art in the UK during the 80s. Chambers also worked with multimedia artist Sonia Boyce.

In 1981, the Hayward Gallery put on an important exhibition which contributed significantly to the institutionalisation of black art during the 80’s entitled,”The Other Story Afro-Asian artists in post-war Britain.”

One of the most iconic black artists of the 80s, Jean-Michel Basquiat, often used words in his neo-expressionist work which incorporated his cultural heritage. One of his most famous works produced in 1981, the “Irony of the Negro Policeman” illustrated the control that wider white American Society had over African Americans at the time.

Curator Thelma Golden and artist Glen Ligon helped to define 90s black art by coining the term “post black.” Golden defined a new artistic genre for the purpose of including marginalised black artists into the discourse on Western art history. Included in the group were black artists who actively refused to have their work defined by their race while simultaneously evaluating and probing complex issues of identity, race and racism through their work.

Various artists made work in response to the increase in marketing and advertising aimed at black people which depicted racial stereotypes, including the artist Renee Cox. Golden examined this concept in an essay in which she discussed the fact that the world was marketing products to the world which were specific to the cultural identity of the artists and selling it back to the artists themselves simultaneously.

Chris Offilli, a British artist, used his work to critically examine black popular culture. Offillis work used satire to ask critical questions about, racism, society and the mass marketing of dumbed down images blackness. Offillis 1996 piece Afrodizzia illustrates this very well.

There has been a significant shift in consciousness among numerous black artists from making work which was an obvious symbol of the black experience to more subtle, conceptual and multifactoral work. Many black artists today produce work which openly declares their cultural heritage while at the same time referencing and renouncing the historical injustices associated with it.

The artist Yinka Shonibare uses his work in complex and challenging ways to analyse diverse notions of identity including the meaning of being black, African, British and post modern. Much of Shonibares work depicts mannequins in historical context in apparently African print fabric.

Significant awards have been given to black artists during this time, cementing their place in art history and recognising their contribution to it including Chris Offilli, Steve McQueen, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall and Robert Colescott.

Throughout the history discussed here, it can be seen that black artists have used their art to express their political and social concerns despite a lack of recognition from society as a whole. Black artists of today clearly receive more recognition than their predecessors, and have surpassed Eddie Chambers definition of black art described at the start of this piece, but in the words of Sonia Boyce…

“…Work produced is still regarded and reduced in totality to questions of ethnicity and cultural difference, outside the historical context of contemporary art. We are working towards a time when the work displayed in exhibitions is no longer cordoned off from it’s contemporaries as a separate and marginal area of artistic production.”

Adelaide Damoah is an artist and writer. Her work reflects various social and personal themes including sex, race and identity. Damoah’s work has been featured in the national press. Damoah also interviews artists for her Art Success series which is published on her blog. Follow her on twitter here and view her latest work on her website by clicking here.

INTRODUCTION

      The history of African-American Art is a fascinating albeit under-explored topic within the general history of American art. Perhaps this lack of exploration is due to a distaste of beginning with slavery as a point of departure for anything African-American. However, in any study of African-American culture, including art, we have to accept the historical fact that African slavery did exist, and that this social phenomenon has undoubtedly influenced and continue to influence the culture of its African-American decedents more than anything else. Yet despite any historical trepidation that might exist in approaching the subject and despite the overall lack of research and exposure on African-American art, there is a lot to cover. For the history of African American Art is also the history of American Art.
      This article will briefly cover the history of African-American Art in several broad sociological chunks with respect to America. First it will examine the art in Pre and early America up to the Civil War. Then it will look at the art of the Post Civil War era including Reconstruction and the period encompassing the first two decades of the early 20th century. Next it will examine the impact of the arts of the Harlem Renaissance to the Depression and mid century. Finally, the article will explore the impact of the Community Mural Movement and other movements and a few select but important artists from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century.
                                     
AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART IN AMERICA BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

      The history of African-American Art necessarily begins with the African’s commodity as slaves. Africans were brought to the so-called New World as early as 1619.1   From the beginning, these slaves were cultivated to do the work that the early European settlers could not do. We know of the early American Pilgrims dependency on Native Americans to help them survive in the early years of the New World. The Europeans who arrived had limited agricultural knowledge with respect to the land of their New World; they did not understand how to work this land. However, Africans did; and their skills were needed. The climate of the southern portion of America was nearly tropical, a climate and environment Africans were used to. Thus the climates and environmental conditions were very similar and conducive to African agricultural skills.       
      As America grew, more Africans were needed to work the fields and for many other jobs, thus the African slave trade would grow in a mighty unparalleled way. “By 1700, enslaved Africans would comprise a majority of the work force in some of the southern colonies.”2   Before the Civil War it was estimated that more than 4,500,000 slaves lived in the south alone3.  So the art of working the land was the African Slave’s first true creative act in America.   
In addition to their agricultural skills, Africans brought with them a highly developed three dimensional, sculptural legacy. Early Africans in America were noted for their wood and iron working abilities. Africans had been smelting metals for thousands of years. And their wood working craftsmanship was unparalleled. Gates and Appiah (2005) explains that

“During America’s infancy (in the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s), what one could describe as African American art indeed embraced a range of forms and definitions. A small drum, several wrought-iron figures, dozens of ceramic face vessels, and a few examples of domestic architecture” 4

      As modest as these abilities may sound today, in the new world, these utilitarian skills were invaluable, for they laid the groundwork for much more. African metal working skills produced the wrought iron fences that became important in the south and later spread throughout America. Slaves created musical instruments like the banjo.5  And the early African in America produced fabrics and quilts. Perhaps one of the most renowned early African-American quilter was the southern born slave Harriet Powers (1837-1910). Her work, now in the Smithsonian, is the “best known and well preserved example of Southern made quilting in existence.”6  And as far as any “domestic architecture” is concerned; many sources credits Benjamin Banneker’s (1731-1806), a free born African of bi-racial decent, with the overall design and layout of Washington, D.C. 7    
      What we recognize today as “art” was viewed very differently in early America. A quilt, a fence, a chair, a house, or a pot was considered utilitarian objects, meant for daily use and not necessarily for aesthetic display. Such craftsmanship was not recognized as art. Nonetheless, it is what the slaves produced; it is what we recognize today as their art.

      Tactile forms were part of the African creative sensibility. However, once the African began to delve into the abstract realm of the two-dimensional, the “plastic arts,” i.e. painting and drawing (and fine art sculpture); their creative talents became more suspect and even disregarded.  Painting and drawing had been part of the European artistic tradition, not the African. Painting was considered high art, and whites had little respect for Africans who attempted it. “To the early slaves in America, the formal fine arts-painting and sculpture were closed.”8  However, the Northern colonies were somehow more considerate or at least more curious about African artistic achievements than the South, where the majority of the African slaves were housed.    

      One of the first Africans in the North to receive acclaim as a painter among the colonies was the Baltimorean Joshua Johnston (1763-1824). He is the best-known African American painter of the period, yet we still know very little about him. It is speculated that Johnston may have been a slave of the Charles Peale Polk or Wilson Peale family, two of the great colonial American painters. But with the exception of the similarities of their styles to Johnston, this relationship has not been completely substantiated. We do know that Johnston was first a slave and later a “free householder of color”, and that he was listed in the Baltimore Directory as a portrait painter from l796-1824. 9  About 13 paintings exist that can be directly attributed to him. The African-American actor Bill Cosby owns three of these.                                                                                                                                   

      Another more cryptic African–American painter of the colonial period was Scipio Moorehead (17??) He was an African slave from Massachusetts. He never signed any of his works, and thus they go unidentified. His only surviving work is a portrait of the African American slave writer Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784?),10  the first African woman in America to be published. In fact, the only reference we have of Moorehead as a painter comes from an early mention by Wheatley.11  It is believed too that Wheatley’s master- John Wheatley also recognized him as an artist. Nonetheless, it is believed that Moorhead master’s daughter- Sara Moorhead-a painter- trained him. As a result of this, he is typically considered one of the first professionally trained African-American artists.
      Johnston and Moorehead were probably not the exceptions. There may have been other African painters, who were talented and/or were inspired by the success of these two artists, yet their works may have been suppressed, co-opted, or simply unmentioned. Africans who painted were considered more the curiosity or the commodity than talented. The prevailing racist attitudes of the period would not easily support the African’s non-utilitarian talents beyond the plantation or basic labor. 

      As America grew and prospered, so did her exposure, thirst, and respect for artistic culture. America was becoming more cosmopolitan and intellectual, and it looked to Europe as a role model for these qualities. One African-American Artist to exemplify this creativity and intelligence during the 19th century in America was the engraver and lithographer Patrick Henry Reason (1817-1898) of New York City. He studied at the African Free School of New York. He was not only an artist of note during the period, having begun receiving recognition as early as the age of thirteen, but he was also a respected speaker and abolitionist. England’s Abolition of slavery in 1833 inspired Abolitionists in America. Reason deplored slavery, as did many white abolitionists, and his works often addressed the inhumane brutality of it. 12  This is a critical first in the history of African-American art.       
      As Americans moved westward, the varied and expansive beauty of their ever-growing nation fascinated them; and artists began representing this beauty through landscape painting. European art movements such as the French Barbizon School of the 1840s and 1850s, a group of naturalist painters that examined the beauty of the French landscape of Fontainebleau, inspired the Americans landscape painters of the Hudson River School in the Ohio Valley and westward to examine theirs. Two African American artists associated with this movement were the freeborn landscapist Robert Scott Duncanson (1821-1872) and the Canadian born Edward M. Bannister (1828-1901).   

     Duncanson is considered to be primarily self-taught, learning his craft by executing portraits and copying   prints. 13   His father was a Canadian of Scottish decent, and his mother was an African-American. Duncanson lived with his father in Canada for the first 20 years or so of his life, while his mother lived in Ohio. As a result, he never fully experienced the struggles of growing up black in early America. Like most African artists before him, you could not identify Duncanson work as originating from the hands of a person of color. His landscapes were luminous and serene and masterfully executed, despite his lack of formal art training. Nonetheless, Duncanson enjoyed a successful career as a landscape painter.                                       
      Edward M. Bannister, who was also raised in Canada but orphaned by 16, lived most of his life in Boston and Rhode Island. Although he never moved as far West as his contemporary Duncanson, Bannister kept with him the beauty of the landscape of Canada, and a love of the landscape painting of the French Barbizon School. Providence was a center for a number of artists who were strongly influenced by this School, and Bannister was an accepted contributor of this dialogue. His pastorals scenes were respected considered expressive and “gentle.”14

      The works of both Duncanson and Bannister depicted a more innocent, unspoiled America, but the growing pangs of westward expansion and the Civil War would upset the innocence of America’s landscape in short order.

CIVIL AND POST CIVIL WAR, THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY (PRE-HARLEM RENAISSANCE)

      Socio-domestic and international tensions began to dominate America as it moved toward the civil war. Slave uprisings, battles with Natives, tensions with Mexico, the industrial revolution, and the growing descent between the North and the South; America found itself with many conflicting ideologies, developing technologies, and the challenges to the old world ways and political values. America was on threshold of a new reality. The artwork of the period began to reflect this fluctuating social reality.         
       Artists like Edmonia Lewis (1845? -1911?), a West Indian and a Chippewa Native American sculptor, and one of the first African-American artists to continue the African sculptural legacy, were idealistic in their representations of man. Lewis was a new breed of “Negro”. She attended Oberlin College, the first coeducational and interracial college in the United States, thus she was educated. She was a female artist, a relatively rare phenomenon even among Whites. And she was a sculptor, unquestionable a male dominated occupation. And she used the struggles of peoples of color as her theme. Because of photography she is one of the first African-American artists to ever be captured on film. 15   Lewis was also the first African American sculptor to win an international reputation. She was also socially aware of the circumstances of people of color in the United States, and she was intolerant.       
In an interview in the New York Times, 29 December 1878, Lewis looked to Rome for creative freedom when she stated that she wanted to:

“…find a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”16

Such was the thinking of many African-America artists before and after the Civil War.

       With the freeing of the slaves, the Reconstruction Era (1863-1877) was ushered in. Because of this the racial tenor of America would become more the boiling pot than the melting pot, as it would be later coined- and many African-American artists wanted out of it; and Europe seemed to be place to go.
      Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) perhaps one of the greatest painters in American history, black or white, sought refuge outside of America. He studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Art under the controversial realist Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). Most American artists of the period learned to draw the figure primarily from plaster casts. Eakins encouraged drawing from life, as they did in Europe. Tanner’s works benefited from these live models. However, the Bible was Tanner true thematic source of inspiration. His Father was a Methodist minister and his Christian up bringing obviously influenced him. Like Edmonia Lewis, Tanner too desired to leave America, perhaps based on its religious hypocrisy toward “the least of these,” of which African-American’s clearly were.                    
      In 1895, Tanner left for France and never returned.  However, while there, his reputation flourished on par with any white artist living in Europe in his day. Interestingly, before leaving for Paris, Tanner painted black people with a dignity that was unseen in his day-such as the “Banjo Lesson.” After his move, he would never paint them again, preferring only spiritual scenes.

       As African-American artists sought refuge away from America’s racial isolationism, others sought refuge within their own cultural heritage. Former slaves left the South and headed North in great droves after the Civil War. The Reconstruction era witnessed Blacks taking legal control over their own lives on many fronts: politically, economically, religiously, and creatively. Artists began creating more heroic and dignified representations of African-Americans and their history as they entered the new (20th) century.                                 
       The sculptor Meta Warwick Fuller (1877-1968) hit a powerful cultural note with her 1914 work entitled “Ethiopia Awakening.” Appearing like an ancient Egyptian relic, this small sculpture depicts a black woman seemingly unraveling from her mummy like wrap, eyes closed, head tilted, her face poised for a yawn, as one arm is straightened at her  left side as the right hand is placed on chest, as if beginning a stretch. All of these signs indicate she is awakening from some deep cultural sleep. Echoes of Edmonia Lewis’ masterpiece, “The Death of Cleopatra,” can be found in this work. Ethiopia Awakening became symbolic for the new cultural awakening of Black Americans. Fuller was soon “celebrated for being the first American black artist to reflect African themes and folk tales in her work and for being ahead of her time in her understanding of the black experience.” 17
       Another artist, Edwin A. Harleston (1882-1931), was renowned for his distinguished portrait paintings of prominent and affluent African-Americans. Harleston was well educated. A graduate of Atlanta University, he was accepted to Harvard in 1906; and he studied at the Museum of Boston between 1906-1912. Harleston represented an even newer breed of African-American among the first generations born free of slavery. In the spring of 1922, he opened a studio in Charleston, South Carolina, which combined “in a most unique way a photograph studio managed by his wife Elise F. Harleston and a painting studio conducted by the artists…”18   Harleston’s wife Elise (1891-1970) herself was unique. She studied photography at the E. Brunel School of Photography in New York City, the only Black woman in her school. She would later become the first African-American female photographer in South Carolina, 19  a distinction that she enjoyed.

       It was clear, that on the on the eve of the Harlem Renaissance, African-Americans artists, exemplified by the Harlestons were making incredible social and cultural strides. Harvard’s first black graduate, sociologist W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963), helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, and the following year celebrated black culture when he started the Crisis Magazine. Through this magazine, Dubois was able to give national attention to Black culture and to any African-American artist that he featured. Dubois pronounced in one issue that that Harleston was “The leading Portrait painter of his race,” 20  so well regarded were his portraits.

The Harlem Renaissance, the WPA, and Post Harlem Renaissance                                                   

       Despite the Black artists that this article has already referenced, it should be understood that these artists were the exception. Before the Harlem Renaissance painting and sculpture were not professional options for Black Americans. But as they began to prosper and become more affluent and self sufficient, artists found a new subject and a new elite patron.                           
       Black America had long begun to amass a number of individuals with social and political credibility. William Edouard Scott’s (1884-1964) mural of “Frederick Douglas Appealing to President Lincoln” is among the first work to depict a black person as a heavy political player. What else can you call someone who has access to the president? It was known that Abraham Lincoln liked Douglass.21  In Scott’s painting, the bearded Frederick Douglas, along with two other white gentle, stands before Abraham Lincoln who is casually seated with legs crossed. The painting depicts the moment that Douglass asks the President to allow blacks into the Union Army. With this painting, and others, Scott would break away from the stereotypical images of the poor, subjugated black person (subservient, ragged, grinning, jiving, watermelon eating) and present them in a new unforeseen way- as a “New Negro,” a term Art Historian Alaine Locke (1886-1954) would later popularize with the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance (1919-1929).
       Locke himself was a New Negro. He believed that African-Americans needed to redefine themselves. A Harvard graduate, a Rhodes Scholar, and philosopher; he exemplified the unprecedented high levels of intellectual achievement and cultural awareness and re-definition African-Americans had achieved post-slavery. The young artists of the Harlem Renaissance respected Locke and responded favorably to his appeal that they look to their own culture and to Africa for their aesthetic inspiration. “In Harlem”, Locke said, “Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” 22   He outlined this belief of cultural self-reliance in his 1925 publication “The New Negro.”23  Locke compared the emerging New Negro in Harlem, New York to new developing countries when he said,

“…Harlem has the same role to play for the New Negro as Dublin has had for the New Ireland or Prague for the New Czechoslovakia.”24

Photography became an important art form in documenting the new cultural experience of the Harlem Renaissance. Since its emergence in 1939 and its unflinching look at the Civil War and World War I, the camera had become a powerful tool for self-expression and documentation. And it proved valuable in documenting the Harlem Renaissance as well.    
       One of the most respected photographers of the era was James Van derZee (1886-1983).  He lived in New York and was, considered one of the leaders of Renaissance and the “eyes of Harlem.”25   Vander Zee caught unprecedented images of African-American success and prosperity in New York, and his photographs would come to represent a veritable who’s who of the black elite living in New York and elsewhere. From 1918 to 1945, Van der Zee would chronicle the entire Harlem Renaissance, from Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey to writer Countee Cullen and many others.

       Institutions also played an important role in showcasing Black Artists during and after the Harlem Renaissance. The most important of these was the “Harmon Foundation” established in 1922. 26  It was responsible for the national exposure of African-American Artists in New York and across the country. Among the artists that the foundation brought to national prominence was the Californian sculptor Sargent Johnson (1887-1967), painter and muralist Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), the painter Palmer Hayden (1890-1973), the Chicago painter Archibald Motley (1891-1981), and the Tennessee born Beauford Delaney (1901-1979). Among these artists Hale Woodruff would paint grand murals and explore important historical scenes from African American history in direct response to Alaine Locke. Perhaps his most famous painting depicts the African slave prince, Cinque commandeering the ship Amistad on which he was held captive. Hayden and Motley would depict the every-day experiences of black people, which was also germane to Locke’s dictum.   
      Sculptors would also emerge with prominence during and after the Harlem Renaissance. Sargent Johnson, Richmond Barthe (1901-1989), Augusta Savage (1892-1962), each using a realistic and naturalistic style depicted images of a graceful and heroic Black personage as in Barthe’s “Prize Fighter;” with dignity and style as with Savage’s “Harp” and Sargent’s “Head of a Woman.” Johnson’s portraiture also pays homage to West African masks particular the art of Benin. Barthe, one of the most powerful sculptors of the period, could depict a range of emotions. “The Mother” is a sculpture imbued with compassion, reminiscent of renaissance depictions of the Lamentation of Christ.

      The Harlem Renaissance essentially ended with the onslaught of the Great Depression of 1929. Needless to say, the Depression impacted more than Harlem, New York. The prosperity of the entire decade vanished. The “Roaring Twenties,” as the 1920s had been termed, suddenly ended with a groan. Soon Black artists and the American art world would need to depend on government intervention for its survival.

       In 1933, one American worker in every four was out of a job. 27  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (1882-1945) created a “New Deal” that would incorporate programs to revitalize America and get people back to work, including artists. Billions of dollars went into his New Deal between 1935 and 1943. His Work Progress Administration program (WPA) was birthed from this money. From the WPA, the Federal Arts Project (FAP) for artists emerged. Although every branch of the arts was covered under FAP, including music, writing, and drama, “The mural portion of the arts project was probably the most popular and enduring.”28  Charles Alston (1907–1977) supervised the Harlem Hospital Center murals and led a staff of 35 artists. He was the first African American project supervisor of the Federal Art Project and the first African American to teach at White art institutions, namely, the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Students League. He went on to form the Harlem Artists Guild with artist Augusta Savage (1892-1962) and bibliophile Arthur Schomburg (1874-1938). 29   The guild was successful in lobbying the WPA on behalf of many African American artists. Vertis Hayes (1911–2000) was a muralist who studied with muralist Jean Charlot (1898-1979) from 1934 to 1935, and headed the Federal Art Center in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1938 to 1939. 30   
      Many painters and sculptors were put to work and emerged as a result of the WPA’s FAP.  In New York painters Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) and Hale Woodruff would produce important works under FAP. In Chicago, artists Henry Avery (1906-), Fred Hollingsworth, Charles Sebree (1914-1985), William Carter (1909-1996), Eldzier Cortor (1916- ), Charles Davis (1912-1967), Charles Dawson (1889-1981) a leading black artists and designer in the 1920s and ’30s, Walter Ellison (1899-1977), Ramon Gabriel (1911-), Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999), Archibald Motley (1891-1981), Jr., Marion Perkins (1980-1961), Charles White (1918-1979), and Vernon Winslow (-1993 d), the first assistant director of the Southside Art Center, 31  are the most well-known. Many artists received considerable attention and produced significant work under FAP of the 1940s. And in some cases, the artists were even “pigeon holed” years later as “WPA artists.” William Carter often complained that he was more than a WPA artist well into his 80s. 32

      The FAP also created many art centers across America in the 1930s and 1940s. The Southside Community Art Center, dedicated in 1940, is the only surviving art center from the WPA era. 33  Remnants of the Harlem Renaissance could be found in Chicago at the center. Alaine Locke was on the board of directors of Art Center in the 1940s. There would often be an exchange of artists between Chicago and New York. Among the prominent Chicago contingent of artist in this exchange were: photographer/filmmaker Gordon Parks (1912-2006), painter Archibald Motley, painter, printmaker, educator and center co-founder Margaret Burroughs (1917-2010); and painter Charles White. Needless to say, the Federal Arts Project was an invaluable program for African-American Artists, as one source tells us:

“The WPA period is considered a major period of African American visual-art history. It is the bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movement of the 1960s.” 34

      Painter, cartoonist, and educator Garret Whyte in the 1940s for the Chicago Daily Defender, an African American newspaper, created one of the first Civil Rights graphic satires. The controversial strip was called “Mr. Jim Crow,”35  and it raised some eyebrows in it day. Although it was created during the WPA period, it was not funded by it.

      Before World War II, Harlem was the capital of the Black Art World. During this time, and for more than 100 years, Paris, France had been the center of the Western Art World. But because of the war, the destabilization of Europe and the fall of France to German forces; artists fled Europe in waves and flocked to America. So by the end of the war, New York City itself would become the international capital of the Western Art World. With this great influx of creative humanity, and the diversity of modernist art ideals; a new movement emerged – Abstract Expressionism.                     
      With Abstract Expressionism and Post-Abstract Expressionism, artists began to lose the representational image as subject matter and hence any representation of themselves. From the late 1940 to the mid 1960s, the Subject matter of Blacks and whites, like in early America, soon became indistinguishable. A few great black artists like Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) and Bob Thompson (1937-1966)) participated in these expressionistic movements to great acclaim, yet they never loss figuration. Lawrence, who survived the WPA, held on to identifiable black subject matter and content. He created colorful, sharp-edged, stylized images representing several themes such as The Great Migration, the Black Poverty, and as Jim Crow. Bob Thompson also kept references to reality in his painting, although not necessarily Black. He expanded on paintings developed by European Expressionists from the turn of the century. His early death in Rome, Italy in 1966, will always keep us wondering about his creative potential.
      Artists like the sculptor Richard Hunt (1935-), who lived in Chicago, was more independent, yet he too was inspired by the unrestrictive self-expressive energy of the Abstract Expressionist Movement. Without references to black images, Hunt created unique often organic sculptural forms. If one needed to search for any black reference in the work of Hunt, one need only look at the brilliant use of his handling of metals- a craft the ancestors of slaves handled with mastery.
      In Texas painter John Biggers (1924-2001) would dominate the black art scene with bold and dynamic large-scale murals and other works. The Californian painter/sculptor Oliver Jackson (1935-) and New York painter Emilio Cruz (1938-2004) were expanding on expressionistic traditions. In the 1960s, Cruz was considered “one of the important pioneers of American Modernism of the sixties when he first began fusing Abstract Expressionism with figuration.”36  Artists like Cruz and Thompson held on to unique figurative forms while developing a symbolic language, which drew from multi-cultural perspectives.

      Other Black artists in the 1960s who recognized that their images-their representation- were becoming lost in the Abstract Expressionist shuffle, decided to create groups, movements, and images of their own. Their movements and images would express, as the character “Benitha” in Lorraine Hansberry’s (1930-1965) 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” boldly proclaimed- “ME!”37

      One of the most short-lived of these African-American Art movements was by the group known as “Spiral.”38  The collagist Romaire Bearden (1917-1988) started the group in 1963 in New York to discuss political events related to the Civil Rights Movement. The group included:  Bearden, artists Norman Lewis (1909-1979), Hale Woodruff (who came up with the name), Emma Amos (1938-), Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), Richard Mayhew (1924-), Alvin Hollingsworth (1928-2000), and Felrath Hines (1913-1993). Bearden proposed using collage as their expressive form, but “the idea did not seem to spark interest in the group”39   Bearden, however, was fascinated by collage’s expressive possibilities. As a result, Bearden’s became famous for his pioneering use of collage as a sociological medium of expression. In the 1970s Bearden, along with Jacob Lawrence and Richard Hunt would be considered one of the Big Three among African-American Artists.

      Although essentially a literary movement, the “Black Arts Movement” (called BAM), another New York Based arts group, founded in 1965 and led by writer, poet, dramatist Amiri Baraka (1934-),40  took the artistic expression of African-Americans to a deeper sociological level. They were Black Nationalists inspired by Malcolm X (in fact they emerged after the death of Malcolm X) and the black militant ideologies emerging in the late sixties. BAM has been described as the “single most controversial movement in the history of American Literature.”41  Unfortunately, the visual arts were never dominant in the movement.

      In Chicago, it was the Southside Community Art Center through the 1940, 50s, 60s, and 70s, and 80s that provided the creative fodder and much of the exposure (especially first time exposure) that Chicago Black Artist of Bronzeville would initially receive. The art center emerged from The Arts Craft Guild 42 , a Black Arts group organized in 1932. Margaret Burroughs, one of the art center’s founders was a member of the guild along with: Eldzier Cortor, Bernard Goss (1913-1966), Charles White, William Carter, Joseph Kersey (1908 -), and Archibald Motley, Jr. Burroughs would go on to found Chicago’s Dusable Museum of African American History, which gave black culture in that city and around the nation an even broader historical context. The value of the Southside Community Art Center for Black artists in Chicago should not be underestimated. One of the Southside Art Center’s most prominent members was Marion Perkins (1908-1951). He participated in several Art Institute of Chicago exhibitions. And in 1951, he received national headlines when the Art Institute purchased his sculpture “Man of Sorrows.”43  The art center has produced (and continues to produce) some very incredible and formidable artists

THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY MURAL MOVEMENT                                                     

      By the late 1960s, the Black Art world would virtually shift its focus from New York to Chicago with the advent of the most successful, conscious art movement ever created by African-Americans: “The Chicago Community Mural Movement.”44  The creation of their first mural, “The Wall of Respect,” became a cultural phenomenon, which received international attention, and set the course for mural painting to this day. William (Bill) Walker (1928-) was the proclaimed founder and “God-Father” of the community mural movement.45  Twenty-one artists help create The Wall of Respect, as well as participate on other murals in the movement. The principle artists on The Wall of Respect was muralist Bill Walker, painter Eugene (Edaw) Wade (1939-), painter Jeff Donaldson (1932-2004), printmaker Barbra Jones-Hogu (1938-), designer Sylvia Abernathy, painters Carolyn Lawrence, Norman Parrish (1937-), Myrna Weaver, Darrell Cowherd, Elliott Hunter Edward Christmas and Wadsworth Jarrell (1929-);46  photographers Billy Abernathy (1938-), Roy Lewis (1937-), and Robert Sengstacke (1943-)           
      Many Black artists across the country participated in the community mural movement, and helped shape it. In Chicago, painters William Walker, Eugene Wade, Don McIlvane (1930-2005), Calvin Jones (1934-), Mitchell Caton (1930-1998), and Sidhha Webber (1943-). On the East coast, painters Dana Chandler (1941-), Gary Rickson (1942-), Nelson Stevens (1938-), and in California, painter Dewey Crumpler (1949-), just to name a few. Some of their early murals still survive. And many of these artists are still painting and/or teaching as of this writing.
      Another movement that would follow closely on the heals of the community mural movement was the group AFRICOBRA.47   Jeff Donaldson was the founder and principal leader of this group. AFRICOBRA was an acronym, which stood, for: African Commune of Bad Black Relevant Artists. This group was essentially comprised of many of the strategists and participating artists of the Chicago Community Mural Movement.

      The artists from both the Community Mural Movement and AFRICOBRA, as a group, were among the most educated and political active artists in African-American Art History. The vast majority of them were either college graduates, in college, or professional educators.48  For example, during this time, Jeff Donaldson was a Doctoral student at Northwestern University and simultaneously teaching at Northeastern Illinois University. Among the principle artists of AFRICOBRA are Nelson Stevens, Barbra Jones-Hogu, Napoleon Henderson (1943-), and Gerald Williams (1926) and others.49  In my study of the community mural movement I stated that:

“Of all the black artists groups to be influenced by the muralists, the art organization AFRICOBRA was perhaps the most organized group to explore a black aesthetic identity through painting and prints and they would explore this style of Black Nationalist painting arguably to greater effect than any other black artists group.”50                        

AFRICOBRA and the Community Mural Movement both created conscious movements with standard philosophies and ideologies. Unlike the Harlem Renaissance, which was primarily focused to New York Artist, and even further to African-American artists, the Community Mural Movement would inspire and influence Blacks artists in every major cities and every nationality across the globe. The Community Mural Movement represented the first time that black visual artists would found a conscious movement that would have international impact.51   The Artists of AFRICOBRA in turn provided a foundation for Black Nationalism in African-American Art in Chicago and around the country.52

     Just as the Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) freed the canvas from the stretcher when he helped pioneer technique of “drip painting” in the 1950s. Mississippi born painter Sam Gilliam (1933-) freed the canvas from the very wall itself. By draping the canvas from any support he pleased, i.e. saw horses, buildings, etc., Gilliam introduced a new painting concept in 1960s and 70s.

LAST QUARTER OF THE 20TH CENTURY
                                                                                                                                                                             In the 1970s, Black films would emerge. Photographer turned Cinematographer, Gordon Parks, the first African-American photographer to work at Life magazine and Vogue magazine,53  would re-emerge with two groundbreaking films: The Learning Tree” and the iconic “Shaft.” These were just two of the many “Blaxploitation”54  films produced in this era.

     Athletes would also emerge as significant artists; NFL football players turned painters (Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers) Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) and (San Francisco 49ers) Bernie Casey (1939-) were two of the most popular. Barnes work grew in popularity when it was featured in the opening and closing credits of the weekly black sit-com: “Good Times.” His dynamic images are elongated, rhythmic and fluid. Casey, who earned an MFA in painting and drawing, was also an accomplished actor. He starred in several black films in the 1970s and 1980s.

     In Chicago, Margaret Burroughs would go on to make the Dusable Museum of African-American Culture, the largest museum of African-American culture in America and continue to provide exhibition venues for younger black artists. Named for Chicago’s first settler (Jean Baptiste Point Dusable), The Dusable Museum gave and continues to give African-American art and culture an even broader historical presence and significance.

     Exhibitions venues like the “Black Aesthetics” (now the Black Creativity Exhibition) is held annually at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It became a viable instrument for showcasing black talent in a museum setting.
     The National Conference of Artists (NCA) would also provide a national dialogue and platforms for artists to showcase their work and discuss their concerns across the country.

      By the early 1970s, African-American artists also caught the eyes of the mainstream art world. The artists of the Community Mural Movement were invited to paint and show their work in the lobby of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in 1971. 55   In 1972, painter Alma Thomas (1891-1978) became the first African American woman to have a one-person show at the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

      Even art schools were changing. As an example, in the late 1970s, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) saw the largest percentage of African-American students ever enrolled in the school’s 112-year history (founded in 1866) approximately 14% of the student population was African-American, by 1978. 56  From these students many, Black Artists would emerge with solid reputations, such as the painter Jonathan Green (1955-), filmmaker Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, sculptor and performance artists Lorenzo Pace (1943-), and artists and gallery dealer Samuel Akainyah (1953-). A few alumni would later emerge not only as professional artists but as teachers at SAIC in the 1980s and 1990s: graphic artist, Frank Debose (1947-), painter, educator John Edmond Towns (1955-), illustrator Greg Rex Perry, painter Maurice Wilson (1954-), painters Joanne Scott and Michael Barlow (1958-), and sculptor Renee Townsend (-1998d)57  were the most notable.

      In New York City, Graffiti, a phenomenon that took its “Guerilla” painting tactics from the early Community Mural Movement, went through a re-examination. By the 1980s, it would go from defacement to fine art. Some of its members found their way from the streets into New York’s elite mainstream art galleries. Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was discovered by celebrity pop artists Andy Warhol (1930-1987)47 “tagging” in New York City subways. Basquiat could be considered the first true black artist of the Hip-Hop generation. He brought truly imaginative images and symbols from the “uptown” ghettos to the “downtown” galleries. Basquiat paved the way for a nation-wide re-evaluation of Graffiti as a legitimate art form. Although he died very young (He was 28), his work is represented by nearly every museum in the United States and Europe.

      Other African-American Artists to make important contributions and receive critical acclaim in the 1980s and 90s, independent of group affiliation are: the sculptor Martin Puryear (1941-), photographers Lorna Simpson (1960-) and Carrie Mae Weems (1953-); filmmaker Spike Lee (1957-), painter and mixed media artist Howardenna Pindell   (1943-), and installations artists Ben Jones (1941-).

      In the late 1990s, Chicago painter Kerry James Marshall (1955-) received the coveted MacArthur foundation’s “Genius Grant,”58  a $250,000 award. Marshall’s images are stark and original representations of the urban and mythic African-American. He juxtaposes representational, abstract, and symbolic imagery with startling affect. Within the last decade, Marshall’s work has been collected by museums across the United States.

      In 2008, playwright, actor, and filmmaker Tyler Perry (1969-) made history when he opened the “the doors to the first-ever African American-owned major television and movie studio” and began producing his own movies and television shows.59  With the exception of Billionaire talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey’s (1954-) “Harpo Studio” in Chicago, Perry’s independent studio represents a monumental step for African-Americans in film production.

      In 2010, a South Carolina Ballet 60  company produced and performed the works of Gullah artist Jonathan Greene, “considered one of the most important painters of the Southern experience”61  This was an original and an amazing interpretation of his colorful, folkloric two-dimensional imagery performed in dance.

IN CONCLUSION

     Today, there are too many African-American artists to mention in such a relatively short article. Although many of the huge moments in African American Art history occurred in the big cities particularly Chicago and New York, there are Black artists working in every media, genre and style all across America. This article represents a significant slice of the history of African American Art from her beginning, which is also America’s beginning to the near present. Even though the few names that were mentioned are groundbreakers, trendsetters, popular or just the best example selected; African-American Art does not end with them. There are tons of others who are unsung; but who may still someday come into our public awareness and into history. We conclude this article in Chicago with A Great Day in Bronzeville.
                                   

“A Great Day In Bronzeville”                                                                                                     

     In the summer of 2008, photographer John Moye photographed more than 100 African-American painters, sculptors, graphic designers, cartoonists, muralists, photographers, collectors, and other visual artists in front of Chicago’s Historic Southside Community Art Center The painter Jonathan Romaine (1966-) originated the idea. He desired to show the success and variety of Chicago’s African-American Artists. This had never been done anywhere before, at least not with so many Black artists. The photograph was taken in homage to Art Kane’s (1925-1995) 1958 photograph of Jazz greats standing in front of a building in Harlem.62

      In Moyer’s photograph, Margaret Burroughs, the Grand Dame of African-American Art in Chicago is seated front and center. Dr. Burroughs passed away in November 2010, 63  as I was working on this article. She was 95 years old. I therefore, dedicate this article to her. She was arguably the most important and inspiring African American Artists of our generation. She was, without a doubt, the binding tie for African American Art and artists from reconstruction to the first decade of the 21st century.

       Finally, in November of 2008, America elected her first African-American President- Barack Obama, a Chicago resident. His campaign and his image inspired African-American artists in every medium and artistic form. Many young artists made their creative debut by depicting the president and the first family, the way images of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Minister Malcolm X were once produced a few generations ago. Thus, African-American Art History continues to grow, as artists are inspired and continue to represent their culture within their unique place in the overall American experience. 

ENDNOTES

_________________________________

1  In 1619 twenty indentured servants arrived in Jamestown, Virginia on board a Dutch ship (p. 11). However, in 1596 Spanish explorer bring the first Africans to what is now the Carolinas in the United States (p. 9).  “Timelines of African-American History” Tom Cowan, Jack Maguire.1994. Roundtable Press. New York.
2  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_year_did_slavery_start_in_the_US
3  http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm Robert M. Grooms 1997.  He quotes the Federal Census report from June 1 1860
4  Excerpted from Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, 2nd edition. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah 2005.
5  http://bluegrassbanjo.org/banhist.html
6  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/quilt/harriet.html
7  As the first Black presidential appointee in America, Banneker was appointed by the President George Washington to layout the new “Federal District,” Washington, D.C. Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/20000214kids9.asp
8  Quarles, B. (1987).  “The Negro in the Making of America” New York: Collier Books, MacMillan. p. 32
9  http://www.marylandartsource.org/artists/detail_000000091.html 2010
10 Moorehead illustrated the frontispiece of Phyllis Wheatley book: “Poems on Various Subjects”(published 1773) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Moorhead.  “Timelines of African-American History” Tom Cowan, Jack Maguire.1994. Roundtable Press. New York.
11 “To S.M., a young African painter, on seeing his works,” is published in this anthology. It mentions two of Moorhead’s mythological paintings “Aurora” and “Damon and Pythias.”  From: “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.” London: A. Bell, 1773.  Also at http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=413
12 http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/4438/Reason-Patrick-Henry-1817-1898.html
13 http://www.intofineart.com/usa/oil-painting-artist-Robert%20S.Duncanson.html
14 Detroit Free Press Mark Stryker Arts Column: Diverse, Impressive Exhibit of Black Art Only Skims the Surface.9/6/06  http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/463455/detroit_free_press_mark_stryker_arts_column_diverse_impressive_exhibit/index.html
15 Several images were taken of Edmonia Lewis about 1870 by Henry Rocher. The photos are now in the Smithsonian.
16 Source:  http://www.historyproject.org/exhibits/public_faces/16.php
17 http://www.answers.com/topic/meta-vaux-warrick-fuller-1
18 Quote found at: http://www.usca.edu/aasc/EliseForrestHarleston.htm 
19 ibid
20 Susan V. Donaldson “Charleston Racial Politics of Historic Preservation: The Case for Historic Preservation” from the book “Renaissance in Charleston: Art and Life in the Carolina low country, 1900-1940” Edited by James M. Hutchisson, Harlem Greene. 2003 Quote on page 176

21 On Lincolns first meeting with Douglass, Douglas relates, “while in conversation with him [Lincoln], his secretary twice announced Governor Buckingham of Connecticut, one of the noblest and most patriotic of the loyal governors. Mr. Lincoln said: Tell Governor Buckingham to wait, for I want to have a long talk with my friend, Frederick Douglass.,”  From this statement you can assume that Lincoln at least liked Douglas, at least in Douglas’ estimation.  From the article: “An Unusal friendship-Lincoln & Frederick Douglas”  by William Connery found at: http://rense.com/general63/friend.htm
22 Locke, Alain (1925b 6), The New Negro: An Interpretation, New York, Knopf.
Alain Locke, “The New Negro,” introduction to The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke (New York: Atheneum,   
(1968), 3-16.
23 http://www.answers.com/topic/james-van-der-zee
24 ibid

25 http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/harmon-foundation-tf/  Reynolds, Gary A., and Beryl J.Wright, eds. Against the Odds: African-American Artists and the Harmon Foundation. Newark, N.J.: Newark Museum, 1989
26 Pierce, F.S. (1996). Academic American Encyclopedia.  Danbury, CT;Grolier, Inc.
27 John Edmond Towns, “Aesthetics of Transformation: The African American Experience of the Chicago Community Mural Movement, 1967-1970” Unpublished Dissertation, N.I.U Dekalb, Il. 2002
28 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/artists/introduction.html
29 ibid
30 ART-RELATED ARCHIVAL MATERIALS IN THE CHICAGO AREA Betty Blum Archives of American Art American Art-Portrait Gallery Building Smithsonian Institution 8th and G Streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20560 p. v.
31 From personal conversations with the artists William Carter
32 http://www.southsidecommunityartcenter.com/history.html
33 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/wpa/index.html
34 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:r1-Ida9XiVYJ:www.uky.edu/Libraries/NKAA/subject.php%3Fsub_id%3D6+garrett+whyte+Jim+Crow+comic+strip&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a  This link provides info about  Garrett Whyte and his comic strip.
35 alitashkgallery.com/cruz/
36 http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/r/raisin-in-the-sun-script.html  This site provides the raw script to the play. The line occurs when Benita’s  mother, concerned about her inconsistency asks her: “What is it that you want to express?  And she responds with certainty- “Me!”
37 John Edmond Towns, “Aesthetics of Transformation: The African American Experience of the Chicago Community Mural Movement, 1967-1970” Unpublished Dissertation, N.I.U Dekalb, Il. 2002 p. 83

38 ibid p. 83
39 http://www.amiribaraka.com/  This is Baraka’s own site. . It provides interesting and insightful info about the writer.
40 poets.org 
41 Anna M. Tyler, “Planning and Maintaining a  ‘Perennial Garden,’ Chicago’s Southside Community Art Center”   
42 In the INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART (11:4), 1994
43 http://www.answers.com/topic/marion-perkins
44 John Edmond Towns, “Aesthetics of Transformation: The African American Experience of the Chicago Community Mural Movement, 1967-1970” Unpublished Dissertation, N.I.U Dekalb, Il. 2002
45 John Edmond Towns, “Aesthetics of Transformation: The African American Experience of the Chicago Community Mural Movement, 1967-1970” Unpublished Dissertation, N.I.U Dekalb, Il. 2002 p. 172.
46 ibid. 76-77

47 ibid. 84-86
48 ibid, p. 67
49 http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~tonli/wit2002/Africobra.htm This site will provided the reader with a more complete list of members.
50 John Edmond Towns, “Aesthetics of Transformation: The African American Experience of the Chicago Community Mural Movement, 1967-1970” Unpublished Dissertation, N.I.U Dekalb, Il. 2002 p. 84
51 ibid, p.
52 ibid, p.
53 Black Artists League Syracuse University. http://student.syr.edu/bal/artfacts.html  Black Artists League Syracuse University 2010.
54 Blaxploitation is a portmanteau, or combination; of the words “black” and “exploitation” This term described African-American commercial films of the 1970s. found at http://keywen.com/en/BLAXPLOITATION
55 http://crossingstreet.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/artistic_evolution_wall_respect.pdf
56 Statistic from Personal recollection as student Exhibition and Events Co-Chair for SAIC student union in 1978
57 http://www.womanmade.org/tribute.html  This site provides additional information about the artist Renee Townsend
58 http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Kerry_James_Marshall
59 http://concreteloop.com/2008/10/events-tyler-perry-makes-history-opens-up-studio
60 Off the Wall and on to the stage: Dancing the art of Jonathan Greene.  By the Columbia City Ballet http://www.sscac.blogspot.com/
61 http://www.jonathangreenstudios.com/Jonathan-Green
62 http://www.harlem.org/  This sites takes you directly to Art Kane’s famous photo
63 http://chilaborarts.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/margaret-burroughs-dusable-museum-founder-rip-from-chicago-sun-times/

Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr

However, as explored in Amber Edwards’ film Against the Odds, many black artists at the time felt they should not be so obliged to their own ethnicity as inspiration for their art. Many studied in Europe (where they were not treated as “Negro artists”, but merely as “artists”) and felt more connected to the European art tradition than to the African or African American one. But Alain Locke, among others, considered this assimilation to Western artistry a mistake because it denied African heritage its rightful place in art. And, although many prominent white artists like Pablo Picasso explored the African aesthetic, he believed only blacks could do it true justice. He wanted the Harlem Renaissance to be a time for African art to develop into its own uniquely beautiful form. Black artists holding fast to white ideas was, for Locke, akin to remaining enslaved. He quotes poet Weldon Johnson,

                         How would you have us, as we are?

                                    Or sinking ‘neath the load we bear?

                        Our eyes fixed forward on a star?

                                    Or gazing empty at despair?

                        Rising or falling? Men or things?

                                    With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?

                        Strong, willing sinews in your wings?

                                    Or tightening chains about your feet? (The New Negro, 13)

This poem illustrates a strong desire held by many Harlem Renaissance artists that black art and the black struggle be intrinsically linked. But that raises complicated questions: is it worse to be enslaved by another culture’s ideas or by one’s own? Is it truly inspired to create art in the tradition of a culture which enslaved yours, or is it a subtle sense of inferiority? Is it freeing or confining to explore only art inspired by Africa? To Alain Locke, the answer is clear – blacks cannot make art except black art. Anything else is dishonest. But the merits of this argument do not stand up to what many black artists felt at the time. Many of the artists discussed in Against the Odds wanted to be treated as individuals, not merely members of their own race. They wanted to explore their own aesthetic sense, and to be free to draw from any art they wished. This, I think, is the inherently more modern approach. Locke focused too much on the sujet of black art: this concern over the mimesis is a sentiment of realism, not modernism. The black artists who explored impressionistic painting, and cubism, and further abstractions were far more poesis-oriented, and therefore, far more modern than their contemporaries whose art had at its core, not art itself, but race.

Works Cited

Locke, Alain, ed. The New Negro. New York: Atheneum, 1992.

The bronze model of a contemporaneous wooden chariot was accidentally discovered in 1974 by Chhabu Laxman Bhil, a farmer, from a site in Daimabad, Ahmednagar district in India.  This artifact has its early strata dating to the late Harappan phase (c. 2000-1750 BC).  It was cast in the lost wax technique, the bronze consisting of a copper alloy containing some arsenic and a little tin.

In spite of conjectures that it may date later than the Harappan period because of its metallic content, the style of the chariot makes an early dating probable.  The tall charioteer is nude except for a triangular loincloth trimmed by four knobs.  The rather small face rests on a tall neck and has a somewhat stumpy nose, receding forehead, small eyes, and a full lower lip.  The hair is parted in the center and is gathered in an oblong bun just above the long neck.  The taut and elongated figure restates in a somewhat simplified manner, the kind of form so masterly expressed in the famous dancing girl from Mohenjo-daro.  The animalsare highly stylized, with short snouts, small triangles for ears, and horns curving forward.  The awkwardly heavy bodies, with markedly tall humps, are supported on somewhat stocky legs.  The oxen are stiffer versions of counterparts in earlier Harappan cultures.  The sharp, stylized curve of the rear haunches relates not only to the metropolitan Indus Valley tradition, but also representations of Daimabad pottery.  Hence, there is a possibility of local manufacture.

Amor Materno

“L’arte non deve essere legata all’architettura o servire ad abbellire un salone, non deve essere fatta per piacere.”

“Art should not just be used to embellish architecture, nor should it be made only to please the eye.”

Medardo Rosso is considered one of the most influential artists of the 1880s, and he got there by relying on his own artistic innovation.  Rosso never associated himself with any of the artistic groups of the time, and his sculptures were not made to appeal to any particular group of artists or collectors; in fact, his work had often been considered aesthetically unappealing and even disturbing.  However, Rosso had an artistic vision that surpassed visual appeal.  His overall artistic goals were to accurately depict life itself in sculptural form and, in works such as Sick Child and Sick Man in the Hospital, to represent the impermanence of life. 

Rosso attended the Brera Academy for Fine Arts in Milan in 1882, but quickly realized that academic art did not suit him.  In his opinion, academic art was artificial and completely irrelevant to real life.  This opinion reached it’s peak when Rosso decided to organize a protest demanding life models for drawing classes.  After the uprising, he was immediately expelled for his revolutionary behavior.

After his expulsion, Rosso moved to Rome where he lived in poverty, often sleeping amongst the ruins of the Coliseum.  In his state of destitution, Rosso realized his true artistic objectives.  While other artists of his time were focusing on historical, literary and allegorical themes, which had no relevance to the real world, Rosso decided to depict contemporary subjects, including ordinary people dealing with the hardships created by urban life.

During this time, Rosso became acquainted with an avant-garde artistic group called gli Scapigliati.  Scapigliato was a term originally used to describe young people with restless, independent spirits.  Though not initially used to describe artists, it soon became a popular term in literary and artistic circles.  Gli Scapigliati aimed to defy the complacent conformity of the rising bourgeois class.  The painting of gli Scapigliati was characterized by an atmospheric fusion of figure and background, emphasized by softened contours, open brushwork, impasto and interwoven colors.  Rosso was greatly influenced by this style and was inspired to create the naturalistic art that characterizes his work.  The most influential member of gli Scapigliati was the sculptor Giuseppe Grandi.  He influenced Rosso in his use of frayed outlines and bold contours that resulted in the variations of light that gave his work a dramatic effect.

Rosso aimed to create works that spoke to him on a deeper level and in a completely different way, and because of this, he was often met with criticism.  However, Rosso had no intention of pleasing art collectors.  Rosso’s sculptures convey emotions and explore the recesses of the soul.  His figures are extremely expressive as they slowly emerge from the medium in which they are rendered.  It appears as if Rosso is unsure of his end product until he discovers the subject within the wax or bronze and slowly reveals it.

Rosso’s art is different than other artists of his time because his sculptures are based on insubstantiality rather than volume and solidity.  Rosso’s use of insubstantial forms caused critics and collectors to relate his art to Impressionism.  In fact, Rosso came closer than any other sculptor to the methods of Impressionist painters.  However, there is a major difference between Rosso’s work and that of the Impressionists.  While the Impressionists focused on depicting visual stimuli directly from nature, Rosso’s visual sensations are a result of memory and emotion.  Rosso’s sculptures capture the transitory moments that are not directly observed from nature, but drawn from his mind through what he remembered and felt.

In the 1890s, Rosso achieved what he called the “dissolution of matter.”  With works such as Rieuse, Grande Rieuse, Bambino alle Cucine Economiche, Bookmaker, and The Reading Man, he incorporated the surroundings into the subject.  The unrefined, sketchy quality of the sculptures accentuate the light and shadows of the work that were so crucial to understanding his meaning.

Rosso was also able to achieve his characteristic dissolution of matter through the actual process of creating his sculptures.  Rosso was very hands-on when it came to creating his sculptures.  He experimented with his own casting techniques, often incorporating mistakes into his work or stopping at a certain step in the process instead of following it to the end.  His abandonment of traditional processes elevated the sketchy, unfinished quality to the status of a finished work.  The end result was a sculpture that focused more on insubstantial forms than an impermeable, unexpressive, permanent object.  Rosso was extremely dedicated to the research and understanding of this dissolution of matter, often using photography as a means of gaining insight into this unique style.

Rosso preferred to relate his work to photography rather than Impressionism.  His sculptures often appear “blurry,” and it often takes some time to see the subject within the wax or bronze.  This relationship to photography led Rosso to take heavily atmospheric photographs of his work.  The photos often accompanied, or stood in place of, his sculptures to accentuate the photographic quality of his work. 

Rosso was also able to relate his sculptures to paintings.  His early works convey the traditional sculptural presence of being viewed in the round, but his later works fuse the subject with their surroundings and are often only able to be viewed from one angle.  In both the Bookmaker and The Reading Man, there is an obvious plane on which the figures are situated.  The background becomes part of the figure and creates a quality that relates it to painting.

While Rosso never associated himself with any artistic groups, his work was praised and appreciated by fellow artists such as Degas and Rodin.  He had a far-reaching influence on the future generation of artists, particularly the Futurists.  Both contemporary sculptors and painters have been influenced by Rosso’s unique style that has spanned time and ceased to die out.

Many cultures designate and design intricate and complex structures for religious devotion. These culturally unique structures reveal the importance of religion in those cultures and allow outside observers to learn and appreciate their traditions and beliefs.

After the establishment of the Edict of Milan in 313 by the Roman Empire legalizing Christianity, many Christians gathered to design and create Old St. Peters Church . The Christians decided to build this church directly over the tomb of St. Peter. This was done in order to coordinate with biblical scripture in which Jesus proclaimed the church be built on the rock in which Peter was standing. The church as a whole is orientated into the shape of a cross. This cruciform design is derived from the cross which is the single most important symbol in Christianity. This church also established exquisite spiritual spaces that are still common in many churches today. The outside atrium is a general area where the holy is kept in and the blasphemous is forced out. The attendants then proceed past the narthex into the nave which becomes the prominent space for religious devotion towards the focal point of the apse. The direct worship towards the apse creates a straight axis approach. This approach is central to the ideas of Christians whom have a sole purpose of progression towards joining Jesus in heaven. The cruciform orientation and straight axis plan of Old St. Peter’s Church are key elements in understanding the faiths and customs of Early Christians in the Roman Empire.

In the Mie prefecture in Japan there exists an exceptional structure dedicated to the Shinto Religion. The Ise Shrine is a grand wooden structure first built several thousands of years ago. The intricate woodworking techniques require no hammer or nails and are flawless against the harsh tsunamis raging against the Japanese coast. Followers of Shinto honor the sun god Amaterasu at the Ise Shrine. In veneration of the sun god, the Ise Shrine is rebuilt every 20 years. This ritual involves a large feast and ceremonies to celebrate the new structure. Formally known as the Shekinen Sengu, the purpose of this ritual is to symbolize the rising and falling of the sun and the ever changing and evolutionary aspects of nature. This constant cycle of death and rebirth reflects the culture of the Japanese in which intense meditation and never ending faith are essential family values that pass down from generation to generation. Although the idea of polytheism seems outlandish to Westerners, believers of the Shinto religion utilize the multiple gods to be able to focus and meditate on certain aspects of their life.

The vast differences between the Early Christians and followers of Shinto are apparent through their design and construction of structures designated for religious devotion. The Shinto’s belief in a constant life cycle evident in their Shekinen Sengu ritual is contrary to the straight axis and constant progression involved in Old St Peter’s Church. Although located across many miles the sacred spaces have commonalities. Both structures are dedicated to religion. More importantly, both structures were built in honor of a specific holy being. The Ise Shrine was built in tribute to Amaterasu while Old St. Peter’s Church was erected to give homage to St. Peter and the rock upon which he stood. Beside basic differences in construction and beliefs both the Early Christians and native Japanese have similar ideas on building sacred structures to honor a specific deity.

Throughout time, civilizations and cultures have placed important cultural values and traditions through the construction and design of religious structures. Old St. Peter’s Church and the Ise Shrine each represent their respective culture by the way the sacred space is utilized for specific traditions and religious devotion.

Postwar German society, stripped and dismantled, was powerless and afflicted with what Theodor Adorno describes as a “damaged collective narcissism.” (Biro) In West Berlin, artists studied with tachistes and informel painters to create an international, neutral mode of abstraction. (Foster) George Baselitz and other German painters rejected this international neutrality and instead attempted to continue the pre-Weimar painterly practices and establish an unbroken link through the German cultural tradition. (Foster) However, this continuity belied the historical destruction of the Nazi era, which led artists like Gerhard Richter to champion post-traditional formations of national identity in painting.

Both Gerhard Richter, during the immediate postwar period, and Anselm Kiefer, during the second-generation postwar period, attempted the project of renationalizing cultural production. Richter’s work probes the question of when and whether the Holocaust can be subject of visual culture. Kiefer’s work confronts his country’s history, inherited through visual representations and verbal and written accounts, and its tense relationship with his generation.

Richter and Kiefer recognized the need to confront Germany’s past, and their art reflects this through formal content and conceptual and stylistic reflections. Richter’s use of photography and his photo-painting technique present his ambiguous sense of perception and memory, whereas Kiefer expresses an ambiguously bipartisan confrontation with traditional German and Nazi imagery. The two artists attack the Holocaust legacy in Germany from disparate angles, with distinct generational concerns motivating their works, yet both confront the themes of visual culture and historical memory, and express the prevailing ambiguity and uncertainty in German postwar society and identity.

Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 and he studied at the Dresden Art Academy in Communist East Germany. Just prior to the erection of the Berlin Wall, Richter and his wife fled to Dusseldorf in West Germany. Poised in the 1960s, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol strongly impacted Richter, and several critics compare Richter’s work to Warhol’s. Though the two do share some artistic concerns, unlike the Pop artists, Richter was not interested in critiquing consumerism; his interests were in the “everyday.” (Storr)

Richter employs various techniques to express his perception of reality, but tempers that project by declaring: “I am suspicious regarding the image of reality, which our senses convey to us and which is incomplete, and limited.” (Danoff) This ambiguity is central to his photo-paintings, which was the medium through which he felt he could most truthfully address the postwar reality due to the role of photographs and media in the construction and conception of historical memory. (Foster) However, Richter never claims any cathartic function, rather, it is the tension between repression and memory, shame and nostalgia that energizes his work.

Such conflicts typify German postwar mentality; Richter describes his own “relation to reality” as having “always to do with haziness, insecurity, inconsistency, fragmentary performance.” (Danoff) This ambiguity of perception and his total rejection of ideology are central to his meditations on the holocaust and postwar Germany, as exemplified in his pieces Uncle Rudi and Atlas.

Richter executed Uncle Rudi [Figure 1], an oil photo-painting done in 1965, in his signature monochrome gray palette and blur technique. These were his two tools to systematically distance the viewer from the subject, a telling reflection of German historical repression. Uncle Rudi crystallizes postwar tensions, representing a familiar, though silenced, memory that was very recognizable and common to Germans: the “Nazi in the family.” (Storr) Uncle Rudi is a small portrait based on a picture of Richter’s uncle smiling for the camera in his Nazi uniform. Here, the Nazi soldier is not a cruel brute, but rather a family member, an ordinary, upright, happy soldier.

Richter describes his uncle as “handsome, charming, tough, elegant, a playboy,” and Richter notes that his uncle was “so proud of his uniform.” (Storr) Uncle Rudi represents the many Germans that willingly participated in the war, a very frightening reality that is rendered, here, very poignantly and expertly. Richter’s blur technique is to feather the paint or smear it with a spatula or hard edge while it is still wet, which obscures the image without involving any editorial judgments or decisions. Furthermore, in choosing to work in gray and relinquish color, Richter lessens emotional perception and thus further distances the relationship to the figure.

Here, Richter renders Uncle Rudi as a faded, aged memory, no longer a striking presence, or even a fully grasped reality. Rudi appears to be merely a “construct of memory” and not a memory of valor or heroism, rather just another soldier, part of what was once the everyday.

Richter began collecting the amateur photos, cultural snapshots and news images that would come to comprise Atlas [Figure 2] in 1962; however, the piece continuously evolved and grew and the photographs also served as models for Richter’s photo-paintings. (Jacobs) Richter’s collection of images functions as a mental map or perhaps a time capsule, attempting to record some aspect of the cultural moment in postwar Germany. Richter explains, “I looked for photos that showed my actuality, that related to me. And I selected black-and-white photos because I noticed that they depicted that more forcefully than color photos, more directly, with less artistry, and therefore more believably.

That’s also the reason why I preferred those amateur family photos, those banal objects and snapshots.” (Buchloh) It seems that Richter believes reality to exist more fully in the everyday, banal objects, and in this way Atlas is at once about impersonality as well as personal experience. The art historian and authority on Gerhard Richter, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, writes that the “archeology of pictorial and photographic registers, each of which partakes in a different formation and generates its proper psychic register of responses,” suggest that Richter intended Atlas to be a mnemonic project, a way to locate himself within his very hazy reality. (Buchloh) Reading Atlas as a mnemonic project, which Buchloh describes as “attempting to reconstruct remembrance from within the social and geopolitical space of the very society that inflicted the trauma,” aligns Atlas with Uncle Rudi. The two align as two crystallizations of postwar tensions that describe an incomprehensible reality entirely through everyday objects.

The panels of Atlas seem endless and the work cannot be apprehended in its entirety at any given point. This may speak to the futility of the mnemonic project during the “memory crisis” of Germany’s postwar repression. The panels of advertising images, softcore porn, family photographs, nature landscapes, bring to mind organizational charts and other practical devices that we know to be neutral and unordinary. However, amidst seemingly trivial, banal neutrality, the photographs of concentration camp victims interrupt Atlas’ homogeneity. These photographs serve as the “punctum” within the piece, revealing the pain that motivated the compulsion for repression. (Buchloh)

As a collection of life’s traces and indexes, never to be completed or fully comprehended, Atlas serves as a mental map of ambiguity and a complex field of registers and references that offer no reassurance of cohesion, or escape into meaning or order. Such is Richter’s perception of postwar Germany.

Anselm Kiefer addresses the project of understanding the postwar German identity and its creation through the lens of the second generation of postwar German society. Richter and his contemporaries, the first generation of postwar German society, were the information sources for Kiefer’s understanding and experience of the Holocaust and its immediate aftermath. (Foster) Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945; he studied under Joseph Beuys in Dusseldorf Kunstakademie and by age 36 he was exhibiting internationally. (Biro) Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, describes the framework in which Kiefer is working, writing, “From the earliest twentieth century’s apocalyptic myths of radical breakthrough and the emergence of the “new man” in Europe via the murderous phantasms of racial or class purification in National Socialism and Stalinism to the post-World War II American paradigm of modernization, modernist culture was energized by what one might call “present futures.”

Since the 1980s, it seems, the focus has shifted from present futures to present pasts.” (Huyssen) And Huyssen defines Germany’s postwar present as the “task of securing the legitimacy and future of their emergent polity by finding ways to commemorate and adjudicate past wrongs.” (Huyssen) In order to achieve this, Kiefer confronts the legacy directly; however, this breaks the taboo. Kiefer draws his material from the icons and themes of the German political and cultural tradition that fueled Fascist culture, for example, the Myth of Nibelungen, traditionally linked to German militarism and Richard Wagner, Hitler’s personal hero. Kiefer transgresses even further and reenacts the Nazi book burning and creates allegories to Hitler’s major military campaigns. (Huyssen) Kiefer confronts Germany’s history very explicitly as an attempt to dismantle the postwar repression that both denies the entire Nazi past and fuels the existing tensions in its aftermath. Kiefer positions his work along the boundary, creating an ambiguity that allows for conflicting interpretations. Matthew Biro termed this ambiguity “hermeneutic undecidability,” and this prevailing tension is central to his meditations on the holocaust and postwar Germany, as exemplified in his Occupations series and in To the Unknown Painter. (Biro)

Kiefer’s most explicit and confrontational work is his Occupations series, which is a series of photographs featuring Kiefer performing the Sieg Heil salute at different historical spaces and landscapes across Europe. Kiefer satirizes Nazi occupation, photographing himself alone, dwarfed by the surroundings, performing an out of place and absurd gesture, for no rejoicing crowds or marching soldiers. (Huyssen)

In some pictures Kiefer appears absurd and ridiculous, as in the photograph picturing him at sea [Figure 3]; however, in other Occupations photographs Kiefer appears nostalgic and perhaps somewhat impressive [Figure 4]. Kiefer has said, “Contemporary Germany does not understand the meaning of the Second World War, and it was as if God had protected Hitler from being blown up in the assassination attempts, as if it were divine Providence to let the cycle of Nazism run its horrible course.” (Albano) Kiefer saw the contradiction within Germans who wanted to forget the war but still operated according to the thinking that began the war, and this is what charges Kiefer’s treatment of fascist imagery. (Huyssen)

This notion of hermeneutic undecidability vibrates most powerfully beneath the foundation of the fascist architecture in the oil painting of To the Unknown Painter [Figure 5]. Created with oil paints, emulsion, woodcut, shellac, latex and straw, there is an overwhelming sensory appeal that is very entrancing and exciting, especially in the rendering of condemned fascist buildings. Andreas Huyssen describes the use of central-point perspective as well as the overpowering proportions, writing that “these paintings assume a ghostlike luminosity and immateriality that belies their monumentality.

They appear like dream images, architectural structures that seem intact, but are intriguingly made to appear as ruins: the resurrected ruin of fascism as simulacrum, as the painterly realization of a contemporary state of mind.” (Huyssen) In recreating the visual allure of fascism, Kiefer brings to bear the dominant postwar German nostalgia and fascination with the past, which explains the inability to mourn and move on. (Huyssen) Huyssen writes, “If mourning implies an active working through of a loss, then melancholy is characterized by an inability to overcome that loss and in some instances even a continuing identification with the lost object of love. This is the cultural context in which Kiefer’s reworking of a regressive, even reactionary painterly vocabulary assumes its politically and aesthetically meaningful dimension.” (Huyssen)

However, very powerfully, Kiefer paints Shulamite [Figure 6] in 1983 and opens a space for mourning, stripping back all previous ambiguity and expressing a sense of the German horror in the Holocaust. (Biro) Shulamite is part of the series of paintings inspired by poet Paul Celan’s 1952 “Death Fugue” about the death camps as told from the view of a Holocaust survivor, advocating morality and hope for humanity. In Shulamite, Kiefer appropriates Wilhelm Kreis’s 1939 plan for the Funeral Hall for the Great German Soldiers in the Berlin Hall of Soldiers, in order to transform it into a memorial space for the victims of the holocaust. (Biro)

There is a massive sense of monumentalism to the space, with a deep recession extending back, which the lack of figures and exaggerated single point perspective only further emphasizes. Huyssen describes the depicted interiors, writing, “ the cavernous space and blackened walls from cremation remind us of a gigantic brick oven with its threatening size…emphasized by Kiefer’s use of an extremely low-level perspective.” (Huyssen) However, there are no direct references to violence, no vulgar remains or traces of what was inhumanely cruel. Instead, set deep within the space are tiny memorial candle flames, almost unseen inside the towering, horrifying space. (Huyssen)

With this gesture, Kiefer transforms the fascist architecture dedicated to the Nazis into a memorial for the Holocaust victims, which Matthew Biro believes “recalls the Holocaust in a way that recognizes the problems of individual and perspectival distortion to which its events are subject.” (Biro) Kiefer’s Shulamite, juxtaposes German and Jewish loss, and thus in a way maintains an aspect of his trademark hermeneutic undecidability; however, Shulamite appears to be an honest and terrifying confrontation with Germany’s past and the human loss that remains present, albeit ignored, in postwar Germany’s reality.

Kiefer’s most successful Holocaust representations present memory as a fluid and inclusive cultural collaboration and in employing hermeneutic undecidability, Kiefer hits a raw nerve within the German postwar society. (Biro) Meanwhile, Richter’s ambiguity of perception and reality speak more pointedly to the generation that had participated in and was held culpable for the horrific evils of the Holocaust, for how could it be possible to fully grasp and internalize the implications of these charges? Both Richter and Kiefer, though unable to fully apprehend the meaning and legacy of their national and personal histories, attempt to break the phobic repression that stunted the German postwar culture and society.

Moreover, the desire for mnemonic experience or a reckoning with the ghosts of the past speaks to the need for Richter and Kiefer, within their respective time periods, to anchor themselves in some way. Andreas Huyssen lauds such efforts; however, he also writes, “Securing the past is no less risky an enterprise than securing the future. Memory, after all, can be no substitute for justice, and justice itself will inevitably be entangled in the unreliability of memory;” recognizing, as Richter and Kiefer did, both the limitation and gravity of historical memory. (Huyssen)