Essay - Aron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance the Harlem Renaissance the...

Aron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance

***** ***** Renaissance is ***** term given to a period in American history where a new focus on the African-American experience emerged. This emergence began in ***** Harlem region of New York.

***** was a time when African-American artists began to express their culture and at this time in ***** there came a new focus on the African-American artist and African-American Art.

***** Harlem ***** has been described as "a cultural and psychological watershed, an era ***** which black people were perceived as having finally liberated themselves from a p*****t fraught with self-doubt and surrendered instead ***** an unprecedented optimism, a novel pride in all things black and a ***** confidence th*****t stretched beyond the borders of Harlem to other black communities in the Western world" (Powelland).

***** Renaissance extended to ***** areas ***** the arts ********** painting, singing and performing. What was similar about *****se *****s ***** ***** ***** on the black experience, "painter Aaron Douglas, author Langston Hughes, jazz musician Duke Ellington, blues singer Bessie Smith, dancer Josephine Baker and the consummate all-round performer Paul Robeson - had certain attitudes ***** ***** black experience as art that, through paintings, writings, musical compositions and performances, explored an assortment of black representational possibilities" (Powelland).

This period in the 1920s is describes as "extremely uplift*****g to *****s as a people. Personalities and individuals connected their expressions in writings, music, and visual artworks as they related ***** the political, social, and economic conditions of being black in America" (B. David Schwartz Memorial Library).

Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance

***** emerged ***** ***** time of ***** Renaissance and because of this was encouraged to express his African roots, "Douglas's use of African design and subject matter in his work brought him to the attention ***** William Edward *****urghardt DuBois and Alain Locke who were pressing for young African*****American artists to ***** *****ir African heritage and *****-American folk culture in their art" (Schomburg Center).

With the focus on African-American ***** "Aar***** Douglas became a leading visual artist during ***** time" (Schomburg *****).

His ***** was closely associated with ***** rising Harlem image with Douglas regularly published in The Crisis, Opportunity and Vanity Fair. He also became famous for illustrating James Weldon Johnson's book God's Trombones and for his illustrations published in ***** New Negro anthology (Schomburg Center).

***** 1934, ***** was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the New York Public *****, with ***** murals designed to represent ***** aspects of ***** life (***** Center).

Aaron Douglas's Work

Aaron Douglas's work has significance both for its themes and for its style.

The themes reflect the African-American place in the world.

Some of his most notable works *****clude Triborough Bridge, oil, 1935, The Negro in an African Sett*****g, black ***** white mural, *****, 1933, ***** Composer, portrait in oil, 1967, Listen, Lord - A Prayer, ***** and ***** illustration, 1925 and Evolution ***** the Negro Dance, black and white mural, oil, 1935 (B.