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The impact of the Harlem renaissance on African-american art

This A-level history essay example highlights the immense impact of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on how African American artists revised their identities by challenging racial stereotypes. The essay writer examines how diverse artists utilized African heritage, along with modernist styles, in preserving historical and present-day events. This sample paper explores how the Harlem Renaissance gave voice to Black artists who wanted to challenge dominant narratives, while works such as Aspects of Negro Life and The Migration Series embody the African heritage fused with modernistic experimentation. This essay example is ideal for those students who want some guidance on how to produce a great A-level history essay.

Octobre 7, 2024

* The sample essays are for browsing purposes only and are not to be submitted as original work to avoid issues with plagiarism.

THE IMPACT OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART

Student’s Name

Course Title

Date

The Harlem Renaissance was a prolific era, from the 1920s through the 1930s, and was

one of the most important moments in African American cultural history. Throughout this time,

African American art, literature, and music kept growing out of Harlem, New York, as black

artists and intellectuals celebrated and voiced their desire for equality. Central to this was the

change in African American art to now include not just the legacy of African traditions, but even

the modern experiences of Black Americans. The Harlem Renaissance had a great impact on

African American art since dominant narratives of racial inferiority were confronted head-on

while redefining Black artistic expression.1This essay will prove that the Harlem Renaissance

gave African American creatives a chance to express themselves through their art while

articulating them with the wider modernist movement.

A pivotal effect of the Harlem Renaissance was repositioning how the arts view African

American identity. During the period, prior to this age, Black artists were frequently confined to

outsiders in the predominantly white world of art. The Harlem Renaissance allowed them to

identify with their culture and, in turn, voice their lives. Aaron Douglas is often described as the

"father of African American art," and he symbolizes a change in so many ways. His works, such

as Aspects of Negro Life (1934), questioned the representation of African Americans' path from

slavery to modernity through African-inspired motifs integrated with geometric designs.2The

inclusion of African symbols represented an important digression from accepted art norms at the

time and spoke volumes of Black pride in culture while relating the struggles of African

2Takac, Balasz. 2020. Aspects of Negro Life, Aaron Douglas' Significant Mural Series. December

2. Accessed October 6, 2024. https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/aaron-douglas-aspects-of-negro-life.

1Ritchie, Sarah. 2013. The Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural, Social, and Political Movement.

Eastern Mennonite University.

Americans to their African heritage.3By putting African heritage in the foreground of his art,

Douglas provided a new iconography for Black artists. Here, he celebrated cultural identity

rather than suppressed it. Using African iconography with modernist abstraction is symbolic of

reclaiming African traditions while situating African American art as a response to racial

oppression. It represented a serious turn of events with regard to the redefinition of black identity

and self-expression within the arc of a cultural movement using creativity as its means of

empowerment.

Besides reclaiming African heritage, the artists of the Harlem Renaissance had to come

up with modernist aesthetics by applying contemporary artistic means in such a way as to reveal

their changing social landscape. One example of this is found in Jacob Lawrence's 1940-41

Migration Series, whose social and racial concerns are spoken through modernist means. He told,

in bright colors and forms emptied of detail, the story of the Great Migration, the movement of

African-Americans from rural areas of the South to urban areas of the North, in search of

opportunity.4With social commentary modernism, Lawrence combined abstraction and narrative

storytelling in innovative ways that were new to African American art. Equally, Archibald

Motley responded to this need to make Nightlife (1943), which framed the vibrancy of Harlem

nightlife with poise and dignity, making a commentary on racial segregation in less forthright

ways. His stylized figures and vibrant colors celebrated the cultural dynamism of African

4Midgette, Anne. 2016. Oh, the humanity: Jacob Lawrence’s ‘Migration Series,’ reunited.

October 13. Accessed October 6, 2024.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/oh-the-humanity-jacob-lawrences-migration-se

ries-reunited/2016/10/07/819f8e10-8a69-11e6-bff0-d53f592f176e_story.html.

3Azmi, M. N. 2019. "Art as a vehicle for social change: The Harlem Renaissance." KnE Social

Sciences 21 (1): 575-585.

American life but mirrored tensions of race and identity in urban America.5Both Lawrence and

Motley personified the fact that Harlem Renaissance artists were not only exploring the African

American experience but were also pushing artistic boundaries, digging deeper into modernist

techniques.

Therefore, The Harlem Renaissance represented one of the most pivotal moments in

African American art history. Ideally, it allowed artists a place to express their culture and

participate in larger artistic movements. A number of figures lay at the heart of the artistic

movement which was the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating their African heritage, continuing

with the racial oppressiveness, and embracing modernist styles into their work. The influence of

the Harlem Renaissance is felt in the way it recasts African American art on which succeeding

generations of Black artists draw. Melding African traditions with modernist experimentation,

their work awoke a new visual language for art today.

5Jackson, Effie. 2023. A Look into the Harlem Renaissance. January 3. Accessed October 6,

2024. https://www.artandobject.com/news/look-harlem-renaissance.

Bibliography

Azmi, M. N. 2019. "Art as a vehicle for social change: The Harlem Renaissance." KnE Social

Sciences 21 (1): 575-585.

Jackson, Effie. 2023. A Look into the Harlem Renaissance. January 3. Accessed October 6, 2024.

https://www.artandobject.com/news/look-harlem-renaissance.

Midgette, Anne. 2016. Oh, the humanity: Jacob Lawrence’s ‘Migration Series,’ reunited.

October 13. Accessed October 6, 2024.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/oh-the-humanity-jacob-lawren

ces-migration-series-reunited/2016/10/07/819f8e10-8a69-11e6-bff0-d53f592f176e_story.

html.

Ritchie, Sarah. 2013. The Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural, Social, and Political Movement.

Eastern Mennonite University.

Takac, Balasz. 2020. Aspects of Negro Life, Aaron Douglas' Significant Mural Series. December

2. Accessed October 6, 2024.

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/aaron-douglas-aspects-of-negro-life.

Octobre 7, 2024

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Academic level:

Undergraduate 1-2

Type of paper:

A-level essay

Discipline:

History of art

Citation:

Chicago

Pages:

3 (825 words)