February 26, 2020
Black History Month is almost over, and I would be remiss to not give an extra shout out for African American artists. Black visual artists were no less creative, talented, or innovative than their white counterparts, but had a much higher “barrier to entry” in America, particularly before 1900. Musicians such as Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Robert Johnson, and Sarah Vaughn fared much better, and were outstanding in their music fields, but the visual artists are a bit less recognizable.
In celebration of this month, I would like to present the following artist’s work, which are some of my personal favorites (especially the two sculptors—probably since that was one of my concentrations in art school—one of whom, Augusta Savage, was born in a Leap Year in 1892)! Each artist created from their own cultural influence with their own spirited and creative touch.
Please note the original source of all text below is noted at the end of each artist’s section. I didn’t write these words, but rather compiled them for you to enjoy! So here you go…PLEASE do enjoy… and join me in celebrating these artists and their contributions, won’t you?
Julia Fister, Executive Director
Robert Scott Duncanson (1821-1872)
Pompeii (1855). Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
The struggle for and attainment of liberty and civil rights during the antebellum, Civil War, and postwar periods provided African American fine artists the freedom (literally and figuratively) needed to practice their crafts. The most prominent black painter of his day, Robert Scott Duncanson directly benefited from the civil rights struggle of the nineteenth century. Duncanson first exhibited in 1842 in the Cincinnati area. In 1853 the Freeman's Aid Society of Ohio sent him abroad to study. His art benefited greatly from his time in Europe, which he wrote "shed a new light over my path." The painting shown here, from 1855, depicts the ruins at Pompeii, Vesuvius in the background, light bathing the entire scene: the two people in the foreground examining ruins; sailboats on the shining, still water; even the side of the volcano in the background—everything calm and bright. The painting, however, contains elements of darkness that can be understood in terms of the political landscape in America at the time, with the country in the throes of armed combat between slavery supporters and abolitionists in Bleeding Kansas and on the brink of national civil war. Looked at this way, the ruins of Pompeii, though bathed in light, are the remnants of a civilization whose time has passed (which can be understood to be the slave South), while Vesuvius (the threat of civil war) smolders on the horizon.
Click here to read more.
Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907)
Forever Free. Marble. 1867. Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
As a woman of mixed African and Native American descent who came of age during the Civil War, her odds of making it were slim, at best. Yet Edmonia Lewis managed to become the world’s first professional African-American sculptor, celebrated internationally for her Neoclassical style. “The obstacles Edmonia Lewis overcame are unparalleled in American art,” wrote Harry Henderson in the 1993 volume A History of African American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (co-authored with artist Romare Bearden).”
The work above is titled Forever Free (1867), the work had been sent by sculptor Edmonia Lewis and depicted a newly freed African-American couple. It celebrated the recent Emancipation Proclamation that had declared, on January 1, 1863, that “all persons held as slaves within any State… shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Click here to read more.
Augusta Savage (1892-1962)
The Harp, created for 1939 World’s Fair in New York, now destroyed, Plaster Cast finished to look like black basalt.
"I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work."—T. R. Poston, "Augusta Savage," Metropolitan Magazine, Jan. 1935, n.p.
The career of Augusta Savage was fostered by the climate of the Harlem Renaissance. During the 1930s, she was well known in Harlem as a sculptor, art teacher, and community art program director.
Following her return to New York in 1932, Savage established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and became an influential teacher in Harlem. In 1934 she became the first African-American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. In 1937 Savage's career took a pivotal turn. She was appointed the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center and was commissioned by the New York World's Fair of 1939 to create a sculpture symbolizing the musical contributions of African Americans. Negro spirituals and hymns were the forms Savage decided to symbolize in The Harp. Inspired by the lyrics of James Weldon Johnson's poem Lift Every Voice and Sing, The Harp was Savage's largest work and her last major commission. She took a leave of absence from her position at the Harlem Community Art Center and spent almost two years completing the sixteen-foot sculpture. Cast in plaster and finished to resemble black basalt, The Harp was exhibited in the court of the Contemporary Arts building where it received much acclaim. The sculpture depicted a group of twelve stylized black singers in graduated heights that symbolized the strings of the harp. The sounding board was formed by the hand and arm of God, and a kneeling man holding music represented the foot pedal. No funds were available to cast The Harp, nor were there any facilities to store it. After the fair closed it was demolished as was all the art.
Click here to read more.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
Untitled, 1982. Acrylic, spray paint, and oilstick on canvas, 721/8 x 681/8 in. (183.2 x 173 cm). Collection of Yusaku Maezawa. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York.
Jean-Michel Basquiat is considered to be one of the most influential African-American artists of the late twentieth century. There is no doubt that Basquiat played a pivotal role in the emerging urban art culture of the 1970s and 1980s. His use of graffiti within many of his pieces separated him from others while the influence of Andy Warhol played an equally significant role. Although he died at only 27 years of age, it is undeniable that Jean-Michel Basquiat has made a lasting impact upon the modern art scene.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s landmark painting Untitled was created in 1982, considered a breakout year in the artist’s meteoric career. It depicts a crowned, spectral head rendered with a painterly ferocity remarkable even amid the artist’s other vigorously expressive images.
It was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum exhibition One Basquiat. There is a strong link between the artist and Brooklyn, from his birth at Brooklyn Hospital, to childhood visits to the Brooklyn Museum, where his mother enrolled him as a Junior Member when he was 6 years old, to their retrospective Basquiat in 2005 and critically acclaimed presentation Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks in 2015.
Click here to read more.
Visit the artist’s website here and read a bio here.
Further Resources:
Click here for information on contemporary black artists, and click here for information on contemporary black artists before the twentieth century.
