The Effects Of Harlem Renaissance On The Street Branch Of The New York Public Library

William H. Johnson was a successful painter who was born on March 18, 1901 in Florence, South Carolina. Johnson began exploring his level of creativity as a child, and it only amplified from there because he discovered that he wanted to be an artist. After making this discovery he attended the National Academy of Design in New York which is where he met his mentor Charles Webster Hawthorne who had a strong influential impact on Johnson. Once Johnson graduated he moved to Paris where he was exposed to different artists, various artistic abilities, and evolutionary creations. Throughout Johnson’s time in Paris he grew as an artist, and adapted a “folk” style where he used lively colors and flat figures. Johnson used the “folk” style to express the experience of most African-Americans during the years of the 1930s and 1940s.

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

One the most distinguished artists of the twentieth century, Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City and spnt part of his child hood in Pennsylvania. After his parents split up in 1924, he went with his mother and siblings to New York, settling in Harlem. "He trained as a painter at the Harlem Art Workshop, inside the New York Public Library's 113 5th Street branch. Younger than the artists and writers who took part in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Lawrence was also at an angle to them: he was not interested in the kind of idealized, fake-primitive images of blacks - the Noble Negroes in Art Deco guise - that tended to be produced as an antidote to the toxic racist stereotypes with which white popular culture had flooded

There were many notable events taking place in the years 1900-1940, some being Pablo Picasso painting one of the first cubist paintings is 1907 , the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and the list continues. Undoubtedly one of the most influential of events during this time was the Harlem Renaissance. Even with its many leaders and innovators, it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective had it not been for Alain LeRoy Locke: black writer, philosopher, and teacher who influenced black artists to look to African sources for pride and inspiration. Without Locke’s contribution, the Renaissance would not have flourished as much as it did, and black pride would have taken longer to develop and accept.

 Harlem Renaissance 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 23 August 2015, .  Harlem Renaissance n.d., History, accessed 23 August 2015, .  Harlem Renaissance n.d., Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 23 August 2015, .  Great Migration 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 23 August 2015, .  Claude McKay 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 24 August 2015, .

Explores how gender influences the importance of skin color for determining one’s self-worth in the African American community. Notes that skin tone is a matter self-worth largely impacts black females more heavily than their male counter parts. Emphasizes how The Blacker the Berry (1929) asserts that in the African American Community the disadvantages that

At 11, Wiley’s mother enrolled him and his twin in a small art conservatory program at Cal State, and in the summer of 1989, he was sent to Russia for training in classical painting. After excelling in this program, he went on to earn his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA for the Yale University School of Art. Although Wiley achieved things beyond his neighborhood, he did not forget the black struggle he was familiar with growing up.

Aberjhani once stated "The best of humanity’s recorded history is a creative balance between horrors endured and victories achieved, and so it was during the Harlem Renaissance. Although the Harlem Renaissance underlines the trouble of ethnic issue knowledgeable by African Americans all through the twentieth century. There were numerous critical impacts, for instance, artistic the growth. The Harlem Renaissance was an energetic affiliation amongst the 1920s where African Americans started composed and transported artistry and writing one of a caring to their race, motivating a countless many dark's kin to complete in a white overwhelming society.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic movement that took place in Harlem, New York. This mainly took place starting from the end of the First World War until the mid-1930s. Harlem, at this time, was the center of the African-American culture, and Harlem appealed lot of black artists, writers, scholars, musicians, poets, and photographers. Lots of these artists had fled from the South because they needed to get away from their oppressive caste system so that they could express themselves freely, and display their talents. The Harlem Renaissance was considered to be the “rebirth of African-American arts”. This movement mainly started around 1918 and ended during the mid-1930s. Some of the major writers during this time of the Harlem Renaissance were Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Countee Cullen, Zoe Neale Hurston, and Marcus Gravey. Lots of these themes that these writers wrote about are themes that to this day artists try to make a point of emphasis, including the American Dream, effects of racism on the black population, black identity, and human rights (Wormser).

“The migration of over a million Black people from the Deep South to Northern industrial cities was vital to the unprecedented flourishing of Black artistic and intellectual life known collectively as the Harlem Renaissance.” (Alphonso Walter Grant and

His portraits of today’s men and women in Old Masters, in which he replaces the European Aristocats with African Americans. He states the his signature portraits are drawing attention to his audience about the lack of African Americans from historical and cultural

Aspiration is by Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), a Kansas native and an African American painter. He is considered the leading visual artist who worked as a faithful expert in the Harlem Renaissance (The Negro Movement). He was a skilled and thoughtful artist during the entire Renaissance. When Aaron came to know that black people were in charge of the Harlem Renaissance, he was quite impressed. The

The Harlem Renaissance was a product of the mass migration of African Americans to the industrial north which eventually lead to the change of various styles of art. During the late 20’s, and early 30’s many African Americans from the agricultural south migrated to start a new, brighter life in the industrial north. By 1930 40% of blacks lived in northern areas(Rose, 2). African Americans saw the opportunity they had in response to WWI. Factory jobs opened and African Americans were being hired(Rose, 2). Many whites in the north did not accept them, and forced African Americans into segregated urban households(Cobblestone, 2). While segregation was not legalized in the north racism was widespread, and had the same effect. The Harlem Renaissance

To begin, the drawing titled, The Beginnings of New Education, with an unknown artist, depicts an image of the differences among black and white schools. The drawing is an image with both black and white children being able to share a classroom and learn with one another. Furthermore, the drawing included African Americans of all ages, as seen in the painting, an elderly man is shown learning with young children since this is the first opportunity of education. Although, there was much improvement necessary at the time this painting was created, numerous African American children were given the opportunity to attend school. Moreover, Thomas Wedgwood used the chilling truth of the cruelty in slavery to create his famous painting, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” The drawing includes an image of an African American man chained on his knees begging for his freedom. This painting was one of the oldest pieces of resistance within the African American community which showed the treatment that all African Americans received. Lastly, Aaron Douglas was a key artist in the Harlem Renaissance due to his use of modernism to make the picture come to life. In his painting, Aspiration, Douglas includes two standing figures, African American with a gaze set on a futuristic city symbolizing human progress. Additionally, Douglas uses the shackled arms of slaves and the North Star that guided slaves to freedom before the Civil War. Douglas includes themes such as, the progression between slavery and freedom and the Great Migration. In addition, David C. Driskell, a scholar in the field of African-American art, stated, “At a time when it was unpopular to dignify the black image in white America, Douglas refused to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people.” All in all, the Harlem Renaissance included various view points to summarize the progress between

Interestingly, Richard Wright viewed art as a blueprint that should map out the future of African Americans. In his essay, Blueprint for Negro Writing, he voiced his disappointment in black writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He characterized Negro writing as one that consisted of a population of unrecognized blacks or the most elite of blacks, such as the talented tenth. He mentions two forms of Negro writing, “one that became the voice of the educated Negro pleading with white America for justice,” and the other being, “a sort of conspicuous ornamentation, the hallmark of “achievement”(125). This describes a humble writer, one that begs for neutrality. Meanwhile, the other garnishes their writing, demanding recognition, and wanting to prove their achievements. However, although effort is obviously put into this writing, Wright still describes it in this manner, “The negro was confined to humble novels, poems, and plays” (125). With regards to his statement, a Negro wanting to prove their lack of inferiority is easily understood. Unfortunately, like sibling rivalry, this longing for attention could have caused the whites to overlook Negro achievements instead. This merely caused whites to pay less attention to Negro achievements as well as not giving them proper criticism or credit. These two techniques were ones frowned upon by Wright. This did not support his definition of Negro art. This was not beneficial to the Negro population, nor did it go towards a greater