INTRODUC TION TO AFRICAN AEST HETICS

AESTHETIC REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN 2

Aesthetic Reviews of African American Muralists and Their Works across Three Eras

Aesthetic Review No. 1

Selection: “Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction” (1934)

Artist: Aaron Douglas

Art Form: Mural (Oil On Canvas)

Time Period: Harlem Renaissance

Biographical Profile of Aaron Douglas

Aaron Douglas, an African American painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and arts

educator, was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1899. The son of laborers, Douglas developed an

early interest in art, an interest that was encouraged by his mother. After graduating from

high school in Topeka, Douglas attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. After

graduating from college in 1922, Douglas taught art at Lincoln High School in Kansas City,

Kansas. Douglas was eager to explore art and decided to move to Harlem in New York City

in 1925.

Douglas quickly became immersed in the New Negro Movement that is now known

as the Harlem Renaissance. His prolific activity and artistic achievements during the

AESTHETIC REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN 3

movement (and thereafter) earned him great respect; he is often referred to as the “father of

black American art” and the “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance.”

Douglas created powerful images of African-American life and struggles, and won

awards for his work. His unique artistic style represented a fusion of modernism and African

art. His illustrations blended elements of art deco, art nouveau, cubism, Egyptian art, and

West African sculpture. The compelling nature of his graphic designs led to him becoming

an in-demand illustrator for prominent African American writers, including James Weldon

Johnson, Alain Locke, Wallace Thurman, and Claude McKay. Douglas’s illustrations for

magazines and book covers decreased after 1927, as he began devoting more time and

energy to being a muralist.

Though he remained a prolific artist well past the end of the Harlem Renaissance,

some of Douglas’s best-known paintings and murals were created in the 1930s.In 1930, he

was commissioned to create a series of murals for the Fisk University Library. After that

work, he completed several other murals for hotels and colleges, and took time off to study

art in Paris, France. He returned to the U.S. in 1932 and completed a series of murals for the

New York Public Library that would come to be among his best-known works: the four-

paneled “Aspects of Negro Life.”

Around this same time, Douglas joined the faculty of Fisk University and established

the university’s art department. During the decades of his tenure, he established its famous

gallery and amassed a substantial collection of art for the university. He also conducted

several solo exhibitions and received numerous awards and honors. He retired from Fisk

University in 1966; however, he continued to be an active painter and arts education

lecturer. Aaron Douglas died in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 2, 1979.

AESTHETIC REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN 4

Critical Analysis of “Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction”

I chose this selection of one of Douglas’s famous murals because it beautifully

conveys the historical journey of African Americans, from slavery to Reconstruction. The

mural represents the themes of African American slavery, liberation, freedom, and hope.

The artist used a warm palette, overlaid images, and silhouettes to tell the story. The

imagery of slavery is conveyed by the silhouettes of enslaved workers toiling in cotton fields,

bearing drums, their backs bowed to the task. The abolition of slavery is shown by the men

standing with broken shackles on their wrists, standing tall with arms raised, and black

soldiers standing in the distance. They seem to stand in defiance of the Klansmen on

horseback, intent on terrorizing and attacking black people. The imagery of hope and

Reconstruction is conveyed by the silhouette of the orator speaking from his stand, pointing

the way to the future: education (the college on the hill) and paid labor (the factory on the

hill). And the musician and the dancer reflect the irrepressible culture of African Americans,

who express exaltation and exuberance despite the harsh realities of American society.

I would classify this mural as an example of black art for several reasons. It

exemplifies African American culture and is a voice of the black experience. Not just by the

historical theme of the work, but in the way that history is reflected with iconic imagery that

is meaningful, representative, and easily understood. The use of silhouettes and overlays

communicates that the portrayed events occurred in overlapping and continuous times, but

the style also conveys a flow of progression from life in slavery to life in freedom with all its

new possibilities and terrors. The mural was created in 1934, long after the end of slavery

and Reconstruction, but firmly situated in the harsh reality of racist terrorism. This reality is

not dismissed; instead, it seems answered by African American persistence and the undying

desire to survive and be free, and thrive.