“Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist,” on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through Aug. 3, presents the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899–1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas vividly captured the spirit of his time and established a new black aesthetic and vision.
Douglas’ forceful ideas about social change and distinctive artistic forms produced a powerful visual legacy through paintings, murals and illustrations for books and progressive journals and made a lasting impact on American modernism. This exhibition brings together more than 80 rarely seen works by the artist, including paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations. Susan Earle, curator of European and American art at the Spencer Museum of Art, organized the exhibition; Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the coordinating curator.
"Aaron Douglas was an extraordinarily influential figure who was one of the first artists to place African American culture at the center of modern art,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “It is a great privilege to host this important exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which has one of the largest pioneering collections of African American art in the United States.”
The exhibition is presented in Washington, D.C., under the gracious patronage of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and first lady Michelle Fenty. “It is fitting that this nationally touring examination of Aaron Douglas’ career and his legacy is on view in Washington, D.C.,” said Fenty, mayor of the District of Columbia. “This city also played an important role in the renaissance of African American culture, with such legendary figures as Duke Ellington calling it home.”
Douglas arrived in New York City at a time when avant-garde artists, writers, intellectuals and activists were redefining culture. This New Negro movement, also known as the Harlem Renaissance, energized Douglas, and he became one of its most influential members. Douglas and his fellow artists were inspired by the progressive professor of philosophy Alain Locke, a leading figure who taught at historic Howard University in Washington, D.C. Douglas combined angular cubist rhythms and a seductive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery to develop a radically new visual vocabulary. His distinctive style with silhouetted forms and fractured space expressed both the harsh realities of African American life and hope for a better future.
Some of the artist’s most important works were mural commissions. He received his first major commission in 1930 for a series of murals for the new library at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. He chose subjects that he hoped would promote black identity and a sense of dignity among the students. In 1934, he was commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project to create a mural at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The four panels of “Aspects of Negro Life” reveal the bold modernist risks Douglas was willing to take when regionalism was the norm. His unique visual style, which drew from African, cubist and constructivist motifs, presented an allegorical representation of issues central to African American history and contemporary life.
“Aaron Douglas’ legacy is not only the body of work he left for future generations of artists and scholars to study,” said Mecklenburg. “His belief that artistic expression could be a bridge between African American and white culture, his courage to promote social change and his dedication to education truly make him ‘the father of black American art.’” -- www.si.edu
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
