Sing it, Dance it, Write it, Paint it Just like many of the great visionaries of the Harlem Renaissance, Aaron Douglas, one of the leading visual artists of the era, was not born and raised in Harlem. This artistic genius came out of Topeka, Kansas, where he developed an artistic sense of community and isolation. Before Douglas became a “pioneering Africanist” of the Harlem Renaissance, he received his bachelors degree of fine arts at the University of Nebraska, and taught in Missouri (Thompson 311). Growing and learning in the Midwest during the wake of the nineteenth century, Douglas experienced the forces of racism, and the wonders of the black culture. Taking these experiences and values with him, Douglas took for Harlem, where he
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Douglas incorporated a multi-cultural experience into his artwork by combining Anglo-Saxon customs with African ones in a geometric style with his portrayal of African-Americans. This is especially emphasized in certain works like “Aspiration,” in which African-American Silhouettes gaze onto large buildings, presumably resembling American industry. The African to Anglo-Saxon connection is also emphasized in Douglas’s “Aspects of Negro Life: Song of Towers,” in which a silhouette of a black man holds a saxophone stands amidst towering skyscrapers and atop spinning gears, with the distant shape of The Statue of Liberty set back in the light. In closely grouping African-Americans with American symbols, Douglas helped unify these two cultures, and alluded to blacks being at an equal level to whites. While alluding to equality was part of his message, Douglas often presented African-Americans in shackles or with hoes in hand. This was not to emphasis servitude, but instead to overshadow the motif of enslavement with free willed African-Americans. This is especially depicted in Douglas’s “Aspects of Negro Life: Idylls of the Deep South,” in which silhouetted slaves are presented on the edges of the wide landscape style painting (Idylls of the Deep South). In the center of the painting, …show more content…
By looking back in history at the major influencers and motivators of the Harlem Renaissance, writers of today have keyed into the power of Douglas’s work and how that has affected generations to come. One modern essayist wrote, “Almost three quarters of a century after the Harlem Renaissance, the generative themes found in the work of Aaron Douglas are again being taken up by black artists, activists, and others both in the United States and in the diaspora; indeed, the Harlem Renaissance itself is being reconceived as a movement confined neither to Harlem nor to the 1920s” (Thompson 319). The sheer power of Douglas’s work had created a ripple affect of influence that is still present in the new century. “Dave Loewenstein, a muralist [around today], said that Doulas influenced a community-based muralist movement because he combined different styles and technical elements with narrative storytelling that dealt with historical issues and contemporary political issues” (Aaron Douglas Was a Leader). The impact of Aaron Douglas’s work, and especially the motives behind them, is still honored today through these essayists or aspiring artists. The validity of these modern writers’s statements is demonstrated by the countless other artists, philosophers, and common people of Douglas’s time who were touched by his ability
Douglas incorporated a multi-cultural experience into his artwork by combining Anglo-Saxon customs with African ones in a geometric style with his portrayal of African-Americans. This is especially emphasized in certain works like “Aspiration,” in which African-American Silhouettes gaze onto large buildings, presumably resembling American industry. The African to Anglo-Saxon connection is also emphasized in Douglas’s “Aspects of Negro Life: Song of Towers,” in which a silhouette of a black man holds a saxophone stands amidst towering skyscrapers and atop spinning gears, with the distant shape of The Statue of Liberty set back in the light. In closely grouping African-Americans with American symbols, Douglas helped unify these two cultures, and alluded to blacks being at an equal level to whites. While alluding to equality was part of his message, Douglas often presented African-Americans in shackles or with hoes in hand. This was not to emphasis servitude, but instead to overshadow the motif of enslavement with free willed African-Americans. This is especially depicted in Douglas’s “Aspects of Negro Life: Idylls of the Deep South,” in which silhouetted slaves are presented on the edges of the wide landscape style painting (Idylls of the Deep South). In the center of the painting, …show more content…
By looking back in history at the major influencers and motivators of the Harlem Renaissance, writers of today have keyed into the power of Douglas’s work and how that has affected generations to come. One modern essayist wrote, “Almost three quarters of a century after the Harlem Renaissance, the generative themes found in the work of Aaron Douglas are again being taken up by black artists, activists, and others both in the United States and in the diaspora; indeed, the Harlem Renaissance itself is being reconceived as a movement confined neither to Harlem nor to the 1920s” (Thompson 319). The sheer power of Douglas’s work had created a ripple affect of influence that is still present in the new century. “Dave Loewenstein, a muralist [around today], said that Doulas influenced a community-based muralist movement because he combined different styles and technical elements with narrative storytelling that dealt with historical issues and contemporary political issues” (Aaron Douglas Was a Leader). The impact of Aaron Douglas’s work, and especially the motives behind them, is still honored today through these essayists or aspiring artists. The validity of these modern writers’s statements is demonstrated by the countless other artists, philosophers, and common people of Douglas’s time who were touched by his ability