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The
Harlem
Renaissance
What IS the Harlem
Renaissance?
The Harlem
Renaissance was an
American cultural
movement of the
1920’s and 1930’s.
Named after the Harlem community of
New York City, this period brought
about some of the most influential
African-American visual artists,
musicians, writers, and dancers.
• Many factors combined to spark the
origins of the Harlem Renaissance.
These included:
–The 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments
–The Great Migration
–World War I
13th, 14th, 15th
Amendments
•The 13th Amendment (Ratified 12/6/1865):
- Abolished Slavery
•The 14th Amendment (Ratified 7/9/1868):
- Citizen Rights…No state can “deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws.”
•The 15th Amendment (Ratified 2/3/1870):
- Right to Vote Could Not be Denied
Based on Race
The Great Migration
Even with changes to the Constitution,
African-Americans still faced racial
hardships and brutality in the south.
From 1889 and 1918,
over 2,552 black
Americans were
lynched.
The Great Migration
In response to their harsh
treatment in the south,
between 1910 and 1930,
African-American families
migrated to northern cities
in multitudes.
This became known as “The
Great Migration.”
The Great Migration
Three major destinations of
the Great Migration were:
- Detroit
- Chicago
- New York City
African-American Population Increases:
- Detroit: + 611.3 %
- Chicago:
+ 148.2 %
- New York City:
+ 66.3 %
World War
When America entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. Army was
reluctant to enlist African-Americans at first.
400,000 Black
Soldiers
enlisted.
200,000
served in
Europe-50,000 on the
Front Lines.
World War
African American Soldiers,
such as the 370th and 369th
Infantries, became French
war heroes.
“Hell Fighters”.
World War
Race riots in 1919,
called the “Red
Summer” because
of the bloodshed.
Upon returning from the war
successful, Black Americans
were empowered and more
confident in their abilities.
Even with opposition, Black
communities were determined to
bring democracy to their people
Why Harlem, New York?
Harlem, New York
Before the Great
Migration, most AfricanAmericans lived in small,
crowded, over-priced
tenement homes.
Harlem, New York
In 1903, Philip A. Payton
Jr., an AfricanAmerican real estate
agent, made deals with
white landlords to lease
some Harlem houses to
middle-class Black families
that were anxious to leave
crowded tenements.
Harlem, New York
By 1910, many white Harlem
citizens abandoned the
neighborhood.
With the Great Migration was in
full swing, Harlem’s affordable
homes for African-Americans
became a popular destination.
The “New Negro”
Prominent AfricanAmerican citizens began a
propaganda campaign
with the idea of inventing a
“New Negro” identity.
One of its main
supporters, critic Alain
Locke, spoke of the
“New Negro” as
promising new
opportunity and respect
for blacks in America.
The Harlem Community
celebrated this new age of
awareness, which brought
about the Harlem Renaissance.
The “New Negro”
New Negro supporters
knew how powerful
propaganda tools were in
creating cultural changes
and used this to their
advantages. As part of this
campaign, AfricanAmerican citizens deviated
from their professional jobs
to pursuit artistic ones.
The
Harlem
Renaissance
Dilemma of Harlem
Renaissance Artists
The New Negro
campaign caused a
dilemma for visual artists
of the Harlem
Renaissance: Would
their work express the
artist heritage of
Western art or that of
Africa?
Some AfricanAmerican artists were
criticized negatively
and called
“Traditionalists”
because they worked
in a realistic style
favored by the
dominant white culture.
Dilemma of Harlem
Renaissance Artists
The most successful
black visual artists were
those that used a
modernist, stylized
aesthetic directly
influenced by African
heritage.
In addition, these artists
received support from
New Negro backers, and
were more celebrated.
These artist felt that their
African connection was
the key factor in helping
them to create a new kind
of visual art.
Famous European artists like
Picasso and Matisse were
successfully using African
influences, and they felt that
African-American artists had a
legitimate claim to do so as
well.
The End of the Harlem
Renaissance
Even though the Harlem Renaissance was one of the
most exciting and influential artistic movements of
American History, it only lasted a little over a decade.
Two crucial events lead to the downfall of The
Harlem Renaissance:
-The Great Depression
- The Harlem Riot of 1935
The Great Depression
October 29, 1929 was the day the stock market crashed,
launching the United States into the Great Depression.
Business owners adopted the
slogan “Last Hired, First Fired”
which caused black workers to
lose their jobs long before white
workers. The February 1930 New
York Herald Tribune reported that
the stock market crash had
resulted in “five times as much
unemployment in Harlem as in
other parts of the city.”
Due to the lack of jobs
and massive
unemployment, Harlem
tenements became
slums where 2-3 families
might live in a single
apartment.
1935 Harlem Riots
Even though the Great Depression had left Harlem an
undereducated, underemployed slum, Southern
migrants continued to move to New York because
conditions were worse in the southern United States.
Tensions rose as
businesses that served
blacks refused to hire them,
the community became
overpopulated, and over
50% of Harlem’s AfricanAmerican citizens were
unemployed.
In March of 1935, the streets
of Harlem broke out into a
major riot. Over one hundred
people were shot, stabbed,
clubbed, or stoned--one death
resulted. More than 500
policemen were called in to
quiet to riot.
Key Harlem Renaissance
Visual Artists
Aaron Douglas
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Jacob Lawrence
Romare Bearden
Aaron Douglas
Aaron Douglas
Douglas (1899-1979) was the most
celebrated and successful of
Harlem’s visual artists.
As a young artist, he moved from
Kansas City to Harlem in 1924.
His artistic style was influenced by
studying modern artists and African
art collected by his friend Albert
Barnes.
Douglas is known for his paintings,
murals, book and magazine
illustrations.
Self-Portrait
1954
Oil on Canvas
36 1/4” x 40 1/8”
Following the Harlem Renaissance,
he worked as a faculty member at
Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee.
Aaron Douglas
Harriet Tubman
1931, Oil on Canvas, 54” x 72”
Aaron Douglas
Aspiration
1936, Oil on Canvas, 60” x 60”
Aaron Douglas
Into Bondage
1936, Oil on Canvas, 60 3/8” x 60 1/2”
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Motley (1891-1981) is well known for
his positive, everyday social scenes of
African-American life.
Born in New Orleans, as he got older,
his family lived in different homes-Buffalo, St.Louis, and finally Chicago.
By 1940, he was known as Chicago’s
best-known black artist. His work
showed that Harlem Renaissance
ideas had spread to other cities in the
United States.
Self-Portrait
1920
Oil on Canvas
30 1/8” x 22 1/8”
Motley’s paintings focused primarily
on the interactions of color
relationships on geometric, abstracted
forms.
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Mending Socks
1924, Oil on Canvas, 43 7/8” x 40”
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Blues
1929, Oil on Canvas, 36” x 42”
Archibald Motley, Jr.
Barbecue
1939, Oil on Canvas, 36 1/4” x 40 1/8”
During the Harlem Renaissance…
Pattern/Repetition played an important role in artists pieces
as well as
Stylized/Flat Shapes
most paintings and collages were done in bright bold colors. And they often told a story.
Jacob
Lawrence
•African American Painter
• Influenced by shapes and
colors of Harlem
• He became Famous for his
migration series were he
Concentrated on depicting
African American struggle for
freedom and justice in America
from the civil war through the
civil rights movements.
The Migration of the Negro, panel 1, 1940-41.
During World War I began the great Migration Of
southern blacks to the north Thousands of blacks left the South in response to promises of
a better life and opportunities in the North.
The Migration of the
Negro, panel 49,
1940-41.
The southern blacks found
discrimination in the North
although it was much
different from that which
they had known in the
South.
•
Brownstones, 1958.
Harlem blossomed into a community with a strong and unique identity. African-American
literary and visual art became a large part of this new cultural which a sense of optimism in
spite of economic difficulties.
Romare
Bearden
•Through his work he told many
captivating and inspiring stories to draw
attention to social realism and to
celebrate the African-American
experience.
• He grew up in Harlem during the Harlem
Renaissance and biased most of his work
about that experience.
•He worked mainly in collage
Patchwork Quilt, cut-and-pasted cloth and paper with synthetic polymer paint on
composition board, 1970,
At this time his paintings were often of scenes in the American South, and his style was
strongly influenced by the Mexican muralists
Tomorrow I May Be Far Away
Bearden uses extreme contrasts and a wide Varity of textures ranging from wood like to
flat colors. The man in the middle is depicted with the impression of poverty and is most like
a farm laborer. The use of contrast in his face relays the since of sadness.
The Calabash, collage, 1970,
The layered, fragmented form
allowed him to freely combine
ideas, shapes, colors, and cultural
references in a way that was both
radically modern, and accessible.
The Jazz Age
Louis Armstrong, Billie holiday,
Dizzy Gillespie
Jazz, a result of the Harlem
Renaissance, originated from the
musical minds of American Blacks.
These include traits that survived
from West African music black folk
music forms developed in the New
World…Jazz was a great inspiration
to many of the African American
Artist of the Harlem renaissance