Aaron Douglas is a gem of the Harlem Renaissance. His artwork personified the resiliency and tenacity that was the essence of African America in the 1920's. He was born just before the turn of the century, 1899 in Topeka, Kansas. He used his love for the arts to establish himself as an local painter, later attaining a M.F.A. from University of Nebraska in 1922.
Be that a success in itself, he began to teach arts in nearby Lincoln High School and soon after moved to Harlem, then epicenter of black thought, to test the waters. He left with no inclintation as to whether he would find work as an artist or if he did, whether his work would be accepted by those who had namesakes. Joining the New Negro Movement of the Harlem Renaissance, he flourished and his pictures last as both relics of that era and examples by which many artist follow to this day.
As a Modern artist he put the art world on its ear by combining the themes of slavery, black empowerment and the more contemporary ideas of industry, self image and racial and social identity. His work was featured in publications from Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, social magazines of the period and his work has been prominently displayed throughout Fisk University and its varying departments. I visited the Smithsonian this summer and was blown away.
Funeral Procession (1950s) probably seen it on the Cosby Show
The Creation
Building More Stately Mansions (1944)
"Towers"
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