african american art

After the World War 1, many of the African Americans felt anxieties which were social and political. There was a new Negro movement. The cultural movement of Harlem Renaissance was realized by American movers including social reformers, cultural elites, and among many others, artists. They promoted African American achievements. Their endeavors led to a focus on African Americans, as well as their art visual artists paled an important role in depicting a new Negro. Painters like Palmer C. Hayden, Laura Wheeler Waring and Malvin Gray exhibited portraits of people of African American community and black life scenes in different perspectives. Comparable representations in clay, wood, bronze were created by sculptors like Richmond Barthe, Augusta Savage and Sargent Johnson. Books and magazines also helped in the Harlem Renaissance by publishing illustrations of block prints of James Lesesne Wells; etchings, drawings of Albert Alexander Smith; jacket covers and illustrations of Aaron Douglas who was one of the most prolific artist of this period.

The term African American art describes Americas black community’s visual art. This includes the plastic arts, basket weaving and pottery. It also includes quilting, woodcarving and painting. There is a wide range of African American art pieces on sale. These include still life, abstract and figurative art. The subjects of these art creations have a wide range. The subjects includes the African American men, fathers, women, children and their culture, black life during the period of slavery, fantasy, music, sexy, singers, black love art, religious, decorative art, black angels, family art, black leaders, urban art, dance art, black history, mothers, buffalo soldiers, Caribbean and Egyptian art. The framed art forms include framed pieces. The subjects of posters and photography include African cities and people, Barrack Obama art, baseball, basketball and boxing, black movie posters, civil rights photographs, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Michael Jackson posters, motivational and rap.

The African American artists include painter Joshua Johnson (1763-1824), painter Edward M. Bannister (1828-1901), textile artist Harriet Powers (1837-1911), sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1845-1911), writer/illustrator George Herriman (1880-1944), photographer James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), printmaker Dox Thrash (1892-1965), sculptor Richmond Barthe (1901-1989), painter Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998), painter Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007), photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006), assemblage artist Betye Saar born 1926, kinetic artist John Scott (1940-2007), installation artist Ben Jones born 1941, textile artist Michael Cummings born 1945, photographer Dawoud Bey born 1953, sculptor Willie Cole born 1955, installation artist Kerry James Marshall born 1955, painter Sandra Rowe, sculptor Renee Stout born 1958 and installation artist Renee Green born 1959.