Harlem Renaissance Art
The African American art created throughout the 1920's in Harlem left a mark on historical timelines that has become known as The Harlem Renaissance. This post World War 1 renaissance was started through African American desire for greater independence in the social world. As Richard J. Powell of artlex.com puts it, "... this Harlem Renaissance (as the cultural movement later became known) was realized by a mix of American movers and shakers: social reformers, political activists, cultural elites, progressives in public policies and education, and, of course, artists. Although each of these constituencies had its own reasons for promoting African American achievements in the literary, musical, visual, and performing arts, the collective results in these endeavors was an unprecedented, broad-based focus on African Americans, their art, and the connections to a larger, modernist vision." The Harlem Renaissance was the change in direction for African American art towards, as Powell says it, a "modernist vision." NB
William H. JohnsonA very memorable artist that lived in the time of the Harlem Renaissance was William H. Johnson. Johnson's better known paintings include that of "Going to Church," "Jacobia Hotel," and, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." William H. Johnson was born in rural South Carolina; this is where his love for drawing manifested itself. Johnson would copy simple pictures of daily comics. As he grew up, he saved money and moved to Harlem when he was seventeen, just a couple years before the Harlem Renaissance really started to boom. He worked three jobs to get himself into the National Academy of Design. There he had a professor, who eventually arranged for him to study in France. Johnson returned as a well-taught, imaginative, realist/expressionist painter with, "Van Gogh like expressionist landscapes," and a newfound interest in art riddled in "folk" style, in 1929. NB
|
|