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Aaron Douglas - Joanne Chen

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Aaron Douglas

Aaron Douglas was an American painter, illustrator, and visual arts educator. He was a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance and helped to propel the art style forward. As a designer, he was influenced by his mother, who was an amateur artist from Alabama, and developed his interest in art at a young age. He attended free classes at the Detroit Museum of Art before attending college at the University of Nebraska in 1918. After graduating, he taught art in high schools then later designed magazine covers for Opportunity, The Crisis, FIRE!!, and Harlem. And during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, he stayed in the area to develop his skills as an artist and started working with African-centric themes to create artworks with meaningful messages. Using his work to set forth a new vision for black artists, he became a well-known cover illustrator that educates the audience about lynching and segregation, and theater and jazz.

Douglas’s artistic style was a blend of the geometric shapes of Art Deco, the linear rhythm of art nouveau, and the traditional African art, sculptures, and dances. This style was later on described by cultural critic and educator Richard Powell as “Afro-Cubism.” To find inspiration and accurately show the essence of Harlem, he frequently went to the nightspots to incorporate the black urban scenes in his work. He did superb murals on the walls of nightclubs and cultural institutions, showing the place of African Americans throughout America’s history and its present society.

From Slavery Through Reconstruction 

Douglas made four murals in 1934, for the New York Public Library, entitled Aspects of Negro Life. This is the fourth mural, entitled From Slavery through Reconstruction. The message of people rejoicing at the news of the Emancipation Proclamation and the use of warm colors suggest that the African Americans are heading into a warmer and lighter era.






With his talent as an illustrator and graphic artist, he was devoted to making works that address social issues around race and segregation in the United States. He used the style of art and visual elements of African Americans rooted in him to address the situations, the struggles, the successes people were facing in various parts of their life. He encouraged students to study history and further expand the movements of African-American Art in a predominantly White-American society. Using his skills as an artist and his experience with the Harlem Renaissance movement, he became a prominent leader in modern African-American art whose work influenced artists for years to come.

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