The Harlem Renaissance

1. The Harlem Renaissance • Time: End of WWI to start of the • Great Depression. • Two-ness: Who you think you are vs what you perceive others to think you are (W.E.B. Du Bois). • Common themes: alienation, marginality, the use of folk material, the use of the blues tradition, the problems of writing for an elite audience.

2. The Great Migration • Harlem is the new suburb (1904) • Educated African Americans move in • “White Flight” • WWI causes mass movement of African Americans from the south • Find jobs • Sick of southern racism

3. The Effects • Racial consciousness • “Back to Africa" (Marcus Garvey) • Racial integration • Music (jazz, spirituals and blues) • Art (painting, sculpture, photography) • Dance • Writing (poetry, plays, novels, etc)

4. Notable Poets • Claude McKay • Countee Cullen • Langston Hughes • Jean Toomer • Jessie Redmon Fauset • Paul Lawrence Dunbar

5. Notable Artists • W. H. Johnson • Lois Mailou Jones • Sargent Johnson • Aaron Douglas • Palmer Hayden • Jacob Lawrence • Archibald Motley Jr.

6. Notable Musicians • Louis Armstrong • Josephine Baker • Duke Ellington • Billie Holiday • Jelly Roll Morton • Bessie Smith

7. Example PoemClaude McKay (1889-1948)America Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate. Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood. Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state, I stand within her walls with not a shred Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer. Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand. List words that describe this poem.

8. Example ArtAaron DouglasInto Bondage 1936 List words that describe this painting.

9. Example Song • They Can't Take That Away From Me Billie Holiday, 1937 • List words that describe this song.

10. Artists

11. Aaron Douglas (1898-1979) Aaron Douglas was the Harlem Renaissance artist whose work best exemplified the 'New Negro' philosophy. He painted murals for public buildings and produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications including The Crisis and Opportunity. In 1940 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for twenty nine years.

12. “The Creation” • 1935 • Oil on Canvas • Aaron Douglas

13. “The Crucifixion” • 1927 • Oil on board • Aaron Douglas

14. “Into Bondage” 1936Oil on canvas Aaron Douglas

15. Aspects of Negro Life: “The Negro in an African Setting” 1934 Oil on canvas Aaron Douglas

16. “The Founding of Chicago” • 1930 – 33 • Aaron Douglas

17. “Building More Stately Mansions” • 1944 • Oil on canvas • Aaron Douglas

18. “From Slavery Through Reconstruction” • 1934; Aaron Douglas; oil on canvas

19. Aspects of Negro Life #62: “Song of the Towers” 1934 Oil on canvas Aaron Douglas

20. Archibald Motley Jr. (1891-1980) Archibald Motley Jr. labored in Chicago while teaching himself the fundamentals of painting and practicing his technique. His first solo exhibit came in 1928 in New York, and displayed his fascination with aspects of African American culture such as music, voodoo, and mysticism. After winning the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1929, he traveled and studied in Paris, where upon his return, he began painting scenes of nightlife and gambling in response to Prohibition. Despite his African American heritage and the rise of the Harlem Renaissance movement, Motley was a member of Ashcan school that did not devote itself to any ethnicity.

21. Blues 1929 Oil on canvas Archibald J. Motley Jr.

22. Mending Socks 1924Oil on canvasArchibald J. Motley Jr.

23. Nightlife 1943 Oil on canvas Archibald J. Motley Jr.

24. Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) • Lawrence's work recounts the African-American experience in this country. Although he has been labeled a protest artist and social realist, in truth he considered himself first and foremost an artist. His images convey the hopes, dreams, and courage of the black community. He often captured life observed on the streets of post-Depression Harlem. He also recorded another history of America, one that was told to him by his family, neighbors, and friends. Lawrence's art is human and accessible, with a quiet dignity and understatement that makes it all the more powerful. He is the first African-American artist to have his work included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

25. Dust to Dust (The Funeral) 1938Gouache on paper Jacob Lawrence

26. Crippled Child on Crutches 1935 Pastels on paper Jacob Lawrence

27. Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) Lois Mailou Jones was a pioneering artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in New England, her life was still clouded by the prejudices of an everyday African American life. She began her career after attending the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Afterwards, she went through the racial barriers to exhibit her works to the world. She perservered through many roadblocks and prejudices, without ever losing her passion to express herself through art.

28. Les Fetiches 1938Oil on linen Loïs Mailou Jones

29. Textile Design for Cretonne 1928 Loïs Mailou Jones

30. Ascent of Ethiopia 1932 Painting Lois Mailou Jones

31. William H. Johnson William H. Johnson entered the Harlem Renaissance during its making. He came to New York in 1918 from Florence, South Carolina, to embark on his career. He became a student at the National Academy of Design. He was educated there for five years, during which he learned from greats such as George Luks and Charles Hawthorne. He then traveled to places in North Africa and Europe to paint and find residence. It was by the suggestion of Hawthorne that he traveled to Paris in 1826, where he settled, painted, and studied the works of modern European masters.

32. Swing Low Sweet Chariot 1939 Oil on board William H. Johnson

33. Lamentation 1939 Oil on Board William H. Johnson

34. A View Down Akersgate, Oslo 1935 Oil on burlap William H. Johnson

35. Street Musicians 1937 Oil on canvas William H. Johnson

36. Sargent Johnson Johnson lived and worked in the Bay Area during a time of great diversity in intellectual, cultural, and artistic production. Influenced by what was known as the Negro Renaissance of the 1920s, he focused his early work on the issue of racial identity, seeking to show the natural beauty and dignity of African Americans. Bay Area art communities were flourishing when Johnson arrived in 1915, and he later became influential in an artistic environment that would develop its own variety of Modernism.

37. Mask ca. 1930-1935 copper on wood base Sargent Johnson

38. Forever Free 1933 Sculpture Sargent Johnson

39. Mask 1933 Sculpture Sargent Johnson

40. Palmer Hayden (1890-1973) Born Peyton Hedgeman, he was given the name Palmer Hayden by his white commanding sergeant during World War I. In his town of brith, Wide Water, Virginia, he was often referred to as a self trained artist. He was a student at Cooper Union in New York and pursued independent studies at Boothbay Art Colony in Maine. He studied and painted in France, where he lived for some years.Hayden's reputation emanates from his realistic depictions of folklore and Black historical events. He, like Douglas, was also among the first Black American artists to use African subjects and designs in his painting.

42. The Janitor Who Paints ca. 1930 oil on canvas Palmer Hayden

43. Beale Steet Blues 1938 Painting Palmer Hayden

44. James VanDerZee (1886-1983) • Many of VanDerZee's photographs celebrate the life of the emergent black middle class. Using the conventions of studio portrait photography, he composed images that reflected his clients' dignity, independence, and material comfort, characterizing the time as one of achievement, idealism, and success. VanDerZee's photographs portray the Harlem of the 1920s and 1930s as a community that managed to be simultaneously talented, spiritual, and prosperous.

45. Evening Attire 1922Gelatin silver print James VanDerZee

46. His Lady’s Corsage 1931Vintage gelatin silver print James VanDerZee

47. Alpha Phi Alpha Basketball Team 1926 Photograph James Van Der Zee

48. Augusta Savage (1892-1962) • Augusta Savage was a world-famous African-American sculptor. Born in Florida, she had her first formal art training in New York City at Cooper Union, the school recommended to her by Solon Gorglum. While she studied, she supported herself by doing odd jobs, including clerking and working in laundries. In 1926 she exhibited her work at the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. That same year she was awarded a scholarship to study in Rome. However, she was unable to accept the award because she could not raise the money she would have needed to live there. Later, she did study in Europe.

49. Lift Every Voice and Sing 1939 Scupture Augusta Savage

50. Gamin 1930 Painted Plaster Augusta Savage