Kaphar Sacrifice Analysis

In the twenty first century there are a few men in this world that admits when you think of artist, you don’t typically think of women. Women rights and racism play a strong role when it comes to African American female artist. For decades’ African American woman have always had a permanent double bull’s eye on their back. Their skin and gender was their worst enemy. In the 1700 century women rights movements started to rise. But if you look up women right movements starting in the 1700 century, the face of women rights is predominantly white women. Between books and the internet, they show that it was mostly white women who helped woman rights. If we still struggle to shine light on African American Women now in the 21st century, you cannot

Du Bois and his NAACP colleague James Weldon Johnson asserted that the only uniquely “American” expressive traditions in the United States had been developed by African Americans. They, more than any other group, had been forced to remake themselves in the New World, Du Bois and Johnson argued, while whites continued to look to Europe or sacrificed artistic values to commercial ones. (Native American cultures, on the other hand, seemed to be “dying out,” they claimed.) African Americans’ centuries-long struggle for freedom had made them the prophets of democracy and the artistic vanguard of American culture.

Hughes story, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, veers away from the conventions of Du Bois’s essay as rather than focusing on the value of black art as a key in social movements, it involves black artists who would rather neglect their blackness and rather took on the culture of whites. The speaker claims he enjoys being white more than being an African American, and Hughes describes this as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America-this urge within the race towards whiteness…”. Much like Du Bois, Hughes writes about the “beauty” of Negro art, and aims to uplift the appeal of negro language and culture as he examines African American artists who stayed true to their roots and culture whose works are amongst those that are still heavily praised even decades later.

African Americans always had a great influence in the United States throughout time from the beginning of slavery. African Americans, since the start of slavery, always expressed themselves artistically, where it was through music or art. From making patchwork quilts, slaves used their artistic expression to help conduct the Underground Railroad and escape slavery. To be defined as “illiterate savages” African Americas proved many wrong with their exceptional skills presented in many different styles of artwork. From slavery throughout the 19th century, there were a great number of African Americans whom contributed to the United States through artistic expression, with creating artwork that would either be judged or discredited. For example, Robert S. Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister, Mary Edmonia Lewis, and Henry Ossawa Tanner were all 19th century African American artists who each faced their own individual challenges to achieve acclaim as artists.

In Blueprint for Negro Writing, Richard Wright makes the argument that all black artists have a social and moral responsibility to use their art to improving and uplifting African Americans and their culture. Wright believed that black artists should use their work to advocate for their race and to help address social issues and make changes for the better. Wright also believed that black artists were too caught up in trying to appeal to white audiences. Wright wanted African American artists to create work for African Americans instead. Wright’s stance on black art being made for a black audience and to address social issues is supported by the celebration of black heritage and beauty in Beyoncé’s “Formation” and Bennett’s “To a Dark Girl”.

"...Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let 's bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then let 's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let 's do the impossible. Let 's create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic." - Aaron Douglas.During the time of the harlem renaissance Aaron Douglas used his artwork to take pride in his african american culture. All of his artwork conveyed one common message and that was the role that African Americans played in society. All of this was seen in one of his major artworks which was the “Aspects of Negro Life,” mural on the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.

In an attempt to prepare the art educator to the paradigm shift in classroom and develop a cohesive curriculum this would comprise the needs of the students and teachers to think about cultures different from their own. While I admire McFee’s interest in cultural diversity and the plight of African Americans. However, her essay is written from a privileged White middle-class perceptive with about her understanding of African Americans. How does McFee identify six major areas of social change in America of the sixties? More importantly, how does the stereotypes of African Americans influence art, education, and society?

The paintings were “not meant to be mundane,” but rather express deep emotions for the first time since escaping slavery as they endeavour to cope with everyday economic and social struggles (Chambliss). In turn, authors and writers concluded the significance of the black culture as equally important as the white culture. A prominent writer, Zora Neale Hurston was one of many authors who centralized her writings on African American culture and women’s search for identity during the Harlem Renaissance.

There are two separate pieces our group has chosen from the Blockson Collection that both coincide with the overall theme we wish to interpret and explore in our final exhibition and presentation. The first is Emory Douglas’s 1969 All Power to the People, which was initially published on the back poster of the Black Panther Newspaper. The second is Charles White’s Dawn of Life drawing from his 1953-1954 The Art of Charles White: A Folio of Six Drawings. While each artwork individually speaks for itself, the common theme portrayed between the two is this notion of moving towards a new generation. Douglas’s piece shows a representation of the fight for social justice for African Americans, and the idea that the desired outcome of equal opportunity

The Black Arts movement refers to a period of “furious flowering” of African American creativity beginning in the mid-1960’s and continuing through much of the 1970’s (Perceptions of Black). Linked both chronologically and ideologically with the Black Power Movement, The BAM recognized the idea of two cultural Americas: one black and one white. The BAM pressed for the creation of a distinctive Black Aesthetic in which black artists created for black audiences. The movement saw artistic production as the key to revising Black American’s perceptions of themselves, thus the Black Aesthetic was believed to be an integral component of the economic, political, and cultural empowerment of the Black

Meta Warrick Fuller’s sculpture “Ethiopia Awakening” served as a metaphoric yearning for African culture, a symbolic image of emancipation, an awakening of African Americans diaspora identity, resurgence of Fuller’s artistic career and as a self-portrait of Fuller. The Progressive era, from 1890 to 1920, forms the backdrop to Fuller’s life and art. This period has come to symbolize the reform efforts of the middle class. White middle class progressives sought to reengineer industry and government, pushed for economic and social reforms. The Progressive era was also a time of intense contradictions and ambiguities. Race was the blind spot of white progressives. 1 At the turn of the twentieth-century African Americans

Society seems to change and advance so rapidly throughout the years but there has always seemed to be a history, present, and future when it comes to the struggles of the African Americans. The hatred of a skin tone has caused people to act in violent and horrifying ways including police brutality, riots, mass incarcerations, and many more. There are three movements the renaissance, civil rights, and the black lives matter movements that we have focused on. Our artist come from different eras but have at least one similarity which is the attention on black art.

Systematic racism continues to perpetuate the marginalization of people of color in the 21st century despite belief of living in a post racial society. This unfortunate reality is seen in many different forms of current culture. One of the ways systematic racism takes current form, is in the negative portrayal created by a single narrative, or the lack thereof, minority groups. This lack of representation or diversity of people of color in different forms of art and platforms, not only affects those subject to misrepresentation, but perpetuates negative attitudes and discriminatory behavior towards those subject to misrepresentation. It is necessary to look into the ways this single narrative in different art forms affects marginalized group, and the current move to dismantle the component power plays in who gets to tell these stories.

Starting around 1918, and progressing through the 1920s and 30s, a section of New York City called Harlem began to be the center of a group of talented African American artists, composers, poets, and dancers. This period of time, with all the literary works, music, art, and poetry coming out of the Black experience, was called the New Negro Renaissance, or the Harlem Renaissance. This was a time just after World War I when there was again hope hope that Whites and Blacks could coexist and appreciate the gifts each had to give, particularly in the arts. What united participants was their sense of taking part in a common goal and their commitment to giving artistic expression to the African American experience (Watson 1995, introduction, 1-14).

From the 1920’s to the mid 1930’s a literary, intellectual, and artistic movement occurred that kindled the African Americans a new cultural identity. This movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the “New Negro Movement”. With this movement, African Americans sought out to challenge the “Negro” stereotype that they had received from others while developing innovation and great cultural activity. The Harlem Renaissance became an artistic explosion in the creative arts. Thus, many African Americans turned to writing, art, music, and theatrics to express their selves.