African-American Art
The art of African-Americans became a powerful medium for social and self-expression. Visual arts including sculpture carried with it political implications related to colonialism, oppression, and liberation. Along with other forms of creative expression, African-American visual arts particularly flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Three exemplary pieces of art that represent the character, tone, and tenor of African-American art during the Harlem Renaissance include Meta Warrick Fuller's "Ethiopia Awakening," Palmer Hayden's "Fetiche et Fleurs," and Richmond Barthe's "Feral Benga." Each of these works of art conveys liberation from oppression and a subversion of the dominant culture.
In Meta Warrick Fuller's bronze sculpture "Ethiopia Awakening," a woman embodies two distinct themes: of bondage and of liberation. The lower portion of the figure is rendered as would be an Egyptian mummy: legs and feet fully bound, wrapped tightly in cloth bearing a classical Egyptian palm-like motif. Egypt is the bastion of civilization in ancient Africa; the awakening of a unique black identity among African-Americans depends on drawing connections to the ancient history of black people everywhere. Egypt is particularly important to the black consciousness because it serves as a cultural bridge: inhabited by a group of people as diverse as African-Americans. Yet Egyptian antiquities have been appropriated by the European academic establishment in a type of intellectual colonization. In other words, whites have assumed responsibility for black cultural narratives like those of ancient Egypt.
Moreover, mummification represents death, but it also represents eternal life and rebirth in a splendid afterlife. Fuller could have chosen to render the figure in an Egyptian statuary style without using a form common to mummies. For example, Egyptian statuary often depicts one foot stepping forward on the plane rather than being bound together like a mummy. Therefore, the artist chose the Egyptian symbolism of the mummy purposefully.
The upper half of the statue is completely different from the bottom, representing the "double consciousness" of African-Americans that W.E.B DuBois referred to in his writing. In Fuller's statue, the woman is breaking free from the bonds that hold her down. She does so peacefully and with grace. Furthermore, the woman has completely divested herself of any Egyptian identity. Unlike traditional Egyptian statuary, her arms are...
African-American Art Creative African-American Literature Were one to pause to give this subject consideration, it would appear that the vast majority of African-American artwork within the 20th century was organized around and largely revolved about pressing social issues of the time period. Despite the fact that African-Americans had been legally emancipated from slavery in the middle of the 19th century, there were still a number of eminent social issues (most noticeably civil
We learn that art can indeed reflect life but it can also inspire it beyond what the human mind can dream. Works Cited Bailey, Thomas, et al. The American Pageant. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company, 1994. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New York: Penguin, 1982. Levernier, James a. "Frederick Douglass: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed. 1994. GALE Resource Database. Site Accessed August 3,
Although the Negro-Art movement included novelists and visual artists, it was the poets and bandleaders who became the face of the Harlem Renaissance. It is in the field of music that African-American Art has had the most widespread and enduring success and influence. Music as the Dominant Art in Black Culture The musicality of Black culture is caused by its Southern, agricultural roots. As with all people laboring on a farm
The simultaneous convergence of these leaders, groups, and movements, is easy to understand when one considers the environment of the Harlem area during the early 1900s. With vast numbers of new African-American citizens having come from the racist south, the area was ripe with social, political, and cultural concepts that come with new found freedom. In such a charged atmosphere, leaders such as Garvey had an audience ready to listen,
Furthermore, as a result of these conditions there was a general failure of black business and entrepreneurships. "Black businesses failed, crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that had been an essential element of the Negro Renaissance." (the Great Depression: A History in the Key of Jazz) However this did not crush the general spirit of the African-American people and there was a resurgence of black culture and enterprise in area such as
Thus, the New Negro Movement refers to the new way of thinking, and encompasses all the elements of the Negro Renaissance, artistically, socially and politically (New). The Harlem Renaissance changed the dynamics of African-American culture in the United States forever, for it was proof that whites did not have a monopoly on literature, arts and culture (Harlem). The many personalities of the era, such as composer Duke Ellington, dancer Josephine
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