Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points

We could make this publication thanks to small donations. How is 3 minutos de arte supported? 

Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem is a neighborhood in New York. In the second decade of the twentieth century, it received a large part of the African American population that migrated from the southern states of the United States, escaping segregation and in search of opportunities (a social phenomenon called the Great Migration). The peak moment of this Great Migration coincided with the First World War, when troops were mobilized, industry’s labor force decreased, and many jobs were generated in the cities of the North and Midwest.
• In addition to this phenomenon, the majority of African American artists lived in Harlem. That is why, in the 20’s and 30’s, a fabulous cultural flourishing was generated that deserved the name “Renaissance.” And although Harlem was the epicenter of the movement, it transcended the neighborhood. There were artists who did not necessarily work there (some worked from Europe and others from other North American cities).
• The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that expressed African American identity and culture. It focused on themes that have to do with African roots, slavery, emancipation, segregation, dignity, pride, the present and the expectations of an entire people. It gathered different artistic disciplines and had varied styles.
• Of all the artistic disciplines covered by this Renaissance, the one that had the greatest impact on the entire world was jazz music, which would become popularized by the excellence of stars such as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgeral, and Duke Ellington.
• In fact, when the movement was developing, it was not called the Harlem Renaissance. It was called “New Negro” at first. This name came from a 1925 book by Alain LeRoy Rocke, which brings together fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African American art and literature, exalting the struggle for freedom and the civil rights of their people. It was an “inspirational” book for the community and thus became a cultural reference for the movement.

Representative Artists: Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley (in Chicago), Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (sculptress), Augusta Savage (sculptress).

Image: Aspiration (1936). Aaron Douglas.

Recommended links:

Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series.

Artistic Movements I: from Classical Antiquity to Rococo.

Artistic Movements II: from Neoclassicism till the end of the 19th century.

American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood.

Nighthawks (1942). Edward Hopper.

You can also find more material using the search engine.

Would you like to support 3 minutos de arte?

Our project.