Harlem Renaissance: The Prosperity of Art
Visual Arts
Shortly after the successful rise of the black literature, the magazines and journals started to also publish the artists’ works as illustrations and cover art. Those black fine artists used their popularity to address the problematic topics concerning African American culture.
Although the types of art that were present in Harlem Renaissance era were profoundly affected by European and white American trends, they were interpreted differently and transformed to praise African American nation. For instance, modernist primitivism, inspired by Freudian psychology, tended to exalt “primitive” black peoples as having a more direct relationship to the nature and the universe than “over-civilized” whites.
Commentary:
This beautiful drawing is a great example of modernist primitivism. It is drawn in cold, but bright colors. The forms are realistic – the artist accurately revealed the features of blossoming floristic world and the human body. The drawing displays the liberation of people: fettered people saw the light of freedom and they rose to it to never be slaves again. The piece of art inspires me to never give up and follow my dreams.
Aaron Douglas, Into Bondage, 1936
Commentary:
This beautiful drawing is a great example of modernist primitivism. It is drawn in cold, but bright colors. The forms are realistic – the artist accurately revealed the features of blossoming floristic world and the human body. The drawing displays the liberation of people: fettered people saw the light of freedom and they rose to it to never be slaves again. The piece of art inspires me to never give up and follow my dreams.
Aaron Douglas, Into Bondage, 1936
Another type of art popular in the Harlem Renaissance Era was called exoticism and introduced peculiar African culture. It gained its popularity in the late 20th century, when European avant-garde artists saw African masks as the embodiment of realistic representational styles toward abstraction in sculpture and painting.
Commentary: The wooden work falls under the art category of exotic masks. The forms in the piece are kind of realistic, although the forehead is made too big; the dark brown color of the wood and lineament reflect the African-American people’s features. The piece of art evokes a feeling of curiosity and respect towards the different culture.
Sargent Claude Johnson, Mask, 1930-1935
Commentary: The wooden work falls under the art category of exotic masks. The forms in the piece are kind of realistic, although the forehead is made too big; the dark brown color of the wood and lineament reflect the African-American people’s features. The piece of art evokes a feeling of curiosity and respect towards the different culture.
Sargent Claude Johnson, Mask, 1930-1935
Additionally, a lot of black artists drew a lot of inspiration from perhaps the greatest fruit of the Harlem Renaissance Era – jazz music.
1920’s: The Jazz Era
“The Roaring Twenties” decade is known not only as a celebration of excess and its rejection of wartime ideologies, but also as “the Jazz Age,” because the cheerful and vivacious beat of jazz captured the careless spirit of the times. People wanted to have more fun, and higher wages gave them money to spend on leisure and artistic activities. However, at around the same time, the Congress declared the Prohibition Act, which did not directly ban the consumption of alcohol, but made it legally difficult to obtain. People found the escape from that dilemma developing the alcohol-serving nightclubs, nicknamed “speakeasies” developed as a way to allow Americans to socialize and entertain themselves.
In Harlem, the most popular club-to-go was the Cotton Club, which glamorized only African-American entertainers and restricted white presence to minimum. Harlem speakeasies, as a rule, played only jazz music, which was brought to the North by famous black musician, Louis Armstrong, from his homeland in New Orleans. Jazz quickly gained its popularity and evoked delectation not only among the African-Americans, but also among the white American people. Many whites tried to get into the jazz-playing nightclubs, but only few were allowed to see the most talented black entertainers, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Lena Horne. Capturing the hearts of millions, jazz music hit the mainstream and made the full decade associate with the Jazz.
Moreover, the global recognition made African-American people to look on their African heritage with new eyes and be proud of their nation as a whole. Jazz music, African-American fine art, and black literature were all mixed into the mainstream culture, bringing admiration to a previously outcast segment of the American population. That epoch of blossoming African-American art and music culture in white European-American society became known as The Harlem Renaissance.
The End of the Harlem Renaissance
The end of the Harlem renaissance is marked by several happenings in America.
Firstly, the Great Depression of 1930s crushed the wild enthusiasm of the “Golden 1920’s,” causing crisis and thus removing abilities for both the artists and their patrons to support them. The dramatically increased economic tensions of the Great Depression made black activists refocus from arts, culture and entertainment to the financial and social challenges of the time.
Furthermore, the massive Harlem riot of 1935, which was a response for rumors that white shop owners killed an African-American for shoplifting, harshly severed the peaceful co-existence between the white shop owners and the black Harlem community. The resulting violence finally remarked the separation of Harlem as the “Mecca” only for African-Americans, and broke the friendship between white and black America.
Furthermore, the massive Harlem riot of 1935, which was a response for rumors that white shop owners killed an African-American for shoplifting, harshly severed the peaceful co-existence between the white shop owners and the black Harlem community. The resulting violence finally remarked the separation of Harlem as the “Mecca” only for African-Americans, and broke the friendship between white and black America.
Even though the Renaissance was over as a historical movement, its influence on modern society was never over. The artistic and political movements of the Harlem Renaissance Era would continue developing in American culture in the form of new award-winning musical compositions, brilliant writing and, most importantly, would inspire the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. The role, Harlem continued to play after the Renaissance times, would change the American cultural and historical landscape forever.
Commentary:
Personally, it was very interesting for me to research this topic. That research made me plunge into the dashing era of twenties.
I learned a lot about the origin of jazz music, what made me want to listen to jazz. It makes me feel joyous, and understand how people of those times ran from their problems dancing in the nightclubs.
Additionally, I have never supported or understood racial segregation and humiliation; so I was very happy to find out that during Harlem Renaissance black Americans finally were given an opportunity to express themselves and be heard of. Luckily, the Harlem Renaissance era opened everyone’s eyes on how wonderfully different the heritage of each nation is.
Personally, it was very interesting for me to research this topic. That research made me plunge into the dashing era of twenties.
I learned a lot about the origin of jazz music, what made me want to listen to jazz. It makes me feel joyous, and understand how people of those times ran from their problems dancing in the nightclubs.
Additionally, I have never supported or understood racial segregation and humiliation; so I was very happy to find out that during Harlem Renaissance black Americans finally were given an opportunity to express themselves and be heard of. Luckily, the Harlem Renaissance era opened everyone’s eyes on how wonderfully different the heritage of each nation is.