The Harlem Renaissance, Mexican Art between the wars, and the Struggle of African Americans

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The Harlem Renaissance, Mexican Art between the
wars, and the Struggle of African Americans

• Elizabeth Cushing

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Harlem Renaissance

• a style of art and literature of the 1920s
• focused on the culture and history of African
  Americans and discussed their accomplishments
• promoted racial equality, and attempted to make
  life more socially smooth

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Aaron Douglass (1898-1979)

• Born in Kansas
• used the Harlem Renaissance art style to
  symbolically represent the history and culture of
  his people
• settled in New York City in 1924
• To create artworks depicting African American
  history and culture, he incorporated designs from
  African sculpture into his compositions

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Noahs Ark Aaron Douglass

• religious painting
• made off of a poetry book called Gods Trombones
  Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, by James Weldon
• flat, overlapping planes create an eerie, but
  strangely mystical and heavenly sense
• space is created by the size difference
• the flat planes cancel out the 3-d appearance

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Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

• like Douglass, he created artwork which focused
  on the culture and history of the African
  American people.
• His art focused on the more modern history of
  African Americans.
• He created pieces based off of the everyday life
  of people in Harlem, NY, and also on his peoples
  past.
• Jacob Lawrence was not born in Harlem, but moved
  there in 1927, when he was about 10 years old.
• became interested in African art and African
  American history when he heard lectures and saw
  exhibits and special programs sponsored by a
  public library in New York.
• inspired by were Goyaa, Daumier, and Orozco

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The Migration of the Negro Jacob Lawrence

• a series painting, which contained 60 different
  parts (started 1941)
• previously, Lawrence had focused on focal figures
  in African American history In this series he
  chose a new topic the migration of African
  Americans from the South to North United States
• Lawrence, as he and his family (both parents and
  a brother and sister), migrated from the South
• strong, bold, and flat colors throughout the
  pictures created a common unity between the
  pictures in the series
• Style
•    used his memories of patterned rugs from his
  childhood in his paintings
•     used the Cubist push/pull method
•     common colors throughout Series (blue,
  green, orange, yellow, grayish brown)

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Mexican Art Between the Wars

• focused on the history and culture of the Mexico
  before the intrusion of Europeans.
• Mexican art brought about mural paintings.
• The wall murals traveled with Mexican artists
  when they came to the United States.

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Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949)

• part of a group of artists whos goal was to
  portray Mexico (historically and culturally),
  before the Europeans arrived. the group created a
  sort of mural revolution
• when Orozco moved to the United States he brought
  his mural ideas with him, and in the U.S. had
  various commissions for mural paintings. 

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Epic of American Civilization Hispano-America
Jose Clemente Orozco

• in this section of the mural (panel 16)
•       -Mexican Revolution
•       -simple peasant playing the hero, getting
  ready to go and fight
•       -around him stand people who represent
  those who have treated him unfairly
• architecture background helps in this piece

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Diego Rivera (1886-1957)

• knownfor his mural paintings
• Marxist
• His art was intended to support his viewers and
  their needs
• he attempted to create a Mexican style which
  focused on the history of Mexico
• his pieces are decorative, yet use bold colors
  and common shapes 

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Ancient Mexico (from the History of Mexico)
Diego Rivera

• The mural paintings revealed the history of
  Mexico
• The murals relate to the struggles faced by the
  Mexican people at the invasion of the Spanish
• the paintings compositions consist of simple,
  strong colors and shapes

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Struggle of African Americans

• portrays the struggle undergone by Americans
  throughout history.
• emphasis on the injustices of African Americans
• Also discusses the unequal rights for women

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Lorna Simpson (b.1960)

• focuses on racism and sexism
• photography of females and African Americans

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Stereo Styles Lorna Simpson

• shows different hair styles worn by African
  Americans
• hair styles show ones social class and wealth
• Simpson thought that hair could relate to a
  persons personality

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Melvin Edwards (b.1937)

• uses art to attempt to depict the oppressiveness
  of human history
• grew up in Los Angeles, in an area where racism
  was all around him
• creates many sculptures
• his sculptures are created from everyday objects
  and material, some of which are just viewed as
  junk by other people. The metal material for
  some of his creations have an even greater
  meaning, as they were from the Watts riot of 1965

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Tambo Melvin Edwards

• created this work in part by metal fragments from
  a riot that happened when he was about 32
• some parts of this sculpture are made up of
  chains, hooks, hammers, spikes, knife blades, and
  handcuffs

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Faith Ringgold (b.1930)

• explains the experience of being an African woman
  in America
• 60s works described the prejudices and
  injustices faced by her and women like her
• 70s her primary material for creating art
  became fabric.

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Whos Afraid of Aunt Jemima? Faith Ringgold

• created in honor of her mother
• also a political piece about the unequal rights
  of African American women
• tells a story through text and pictures
• narrative of Aunt Jemima, a fictional character
  who seemed to represent all African American
  women. The story on her quilt had a twist, as
  Aunt Jemima was shown as a business woman

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Adrian Piper (b.1948)

• goal in artwork to evoke a sense of positive
  inspiration in her viewers and motivate them to
  help change society, especially in racial aspects
• created a video artwork speaking out about her
  life as a light-skinned African American, and
  how, although the biggest and most obvious racial
  barriers have been broken, there is still a great
  amount of racial tension going on in todays
  society
• her pieces force people to question their own
  opinions on racism 

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Cornered Adrian Piper

• combination of film and set up
• 20 minute video where Piper talks about life for
  an African American woman
• Im black, now lets deal with this social fact
  and the fact of my stating it together If you
  feel that my letting people know that Im not
  white is making an unnecessary fuss, you must
  feel that the right and proper course of action
  for me to take is to pass for white. Now this
  kind of thinking presupposes a belief that its
  inherently better to be identified as
  white.  -Adrian Piper