Aaron Douglas and Richmond Barthe - Assignment Example

Aaron Douglas and Richmond Barthe The Harlem renaissance is the period when the African-American literature, dance, art and social commentary began to flourish. This was during the 1900s in Harlem. This period was more than juts am movement and it included different aspects of African American culture. This culture was defined by African American expression and belief in their art. It was an art era after the post impressionism where artists used intense colors, thick presentations of paint, typical brushstrokes, and material subject matter. This movement also rested towards an extra expressive and spiritual approach and sought to add symbolic meaning and emotion to the art. The Harlem renaissance art borrowed heavily from post impressionism. The African American community came to understand that it was their time to flourish as human beings. This is usually referred to as the period of enlightenment for the African American artists and the people. This essay seeks to discuss the Harlem renaissance basing on the two prominent figures, Richmond Barthe and Aaron Douglas. It compares and contrasts their early life, their education and their contribution in the Harlem renaissance. Richmond Barthe was born in bay St Louis, Mississippi. This was on January 28, 1901. His father was sr. Richmond Barthe and his mother Marie clementine Robateau. His mother sewed to support the family and his father died when he was only a year old. His mother later remarried to Barthe’s godfather, William franklin. William had no stable job and he worked odd jobs to sustain the family. This included being the icemen to the local community. Interestingly, Barthe’s interest in art developed at a very tender age. Barthe himself mentions that his mother would keep him calm through giving him a piece of paper to draw on. This would allow the mother enough time to run the house errands (Schulman & Peter, 2009 p123). At the age of six years, Barthe began to paint after the master the mum sewed for gave him a set of water colors. At this age, Barthe could draw well. When Barthe was a teenager, his art was overdeveloped for his age. Most of his paintings captured his father’s ice customers and his mother’s sewing customers. Luckily as he helped his father in delivering ice during the summer, one of the customers noticed the hardship and helped him get a job in New Orleans (Black, 2009 p234). This family encouraged his art and as he worked as a houseboy, Barthe furthered his talent in art. It was around this time that Barthe met Lyle Saxon. This was a writer for the New Orleans times-picayune. Barthe and Saxon became best of friends. Saxon remained Barthe’s friend and encouraged his drawings and paintings even after he became a well-known novelist. Barthe’s life was destined for greatness at this juncture. Everyone was in support of his art. Barthe’s believed that it was only through art that he could help the African American society rise from the dust. This life can be contrasted to Aaron Douglas who had great interest in art at a very tender age. Aaron Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas. In most literature he is referred to as the father of black American art. Aaron as a kid developed immense love for art since the mother was an avid painter. It was from this young painter that the father of African American art was going to develop in his later years. Even at school, Aaron was ever interested in art and would participate in drawing competitions. His love for art made him want to further his type of art and even impact the society though art. In 1917, Douglas graduated from Topeka high school. He furthered his studies at Nebraska University, Lincoln. It was here that Douglas attained his old time dream through attending a bachelor’s degree in fine art. At this time he was already coaching high school students in Lincoln high school in Kansas City. It is clear that Douglas wanted his art to have an impact to the society and he believed to make change only through art (Bloom, 2004 pg. 100). He taught for two years in this high school before moving to New York where Harlem had an already established art scene. It was here that he would begin his journey as a Harlem renaissance artist. In terms of artwork, Richmond Barthe was a trail blazer in art (Vendryes, 2008 p213). Richmond sculpted projects were seminal in a way that mainly focused in the lives of his fellow African Americans. He mainly depicted the lives of African Americans in struggles to break the chains of oppression and seclusion. For example his depiction of how the African Americans worked in the fields of the south he sculpted the woman with scythe in 1944. He also developed African Americans of great distinction like the boxer sculpture. His art also focused on African Americans as victims of racial violence. Barthe also sculpted images of African warriors and ceremonial participants. This is quite different from Aaron Douglas’s type of art where he was mainly a graphic painter. Most of his artworks were paintings and he never made sculptures. He is the African American artist that played a major role in the Harlem renaissance. His first major commission to illustrate Alaine Leroy Locke’s novel, the new Negro prompted many other artists. This made other graphic artists to develop artworks that depict images of free African Americans. Soon after, he began one of his most renowned works. This was a chain of murals titled "Aspects of Negro Life" that presented four pieces, each portraying a dissimilar part of the African-American practice. Each painting comprised a charming mix of Douglas's inspirations, from jazz music to nonfigurative and symmetrical art. In 1942 Barthe completed the boxer. This is one of his most famous works. This piece of art developed in a time where no African American participation was allowed in any league sports with the whites. Boxing was the only type of sport that the black could participate in. Interestingly, this painting had proceeded the times of the “Brown Bomber.” In the year 1937 to 1949, the world’s heavy weight champion Joe Louis, defended his title of twenty five records to become a hero to all whites and blacks. It was through this sculptor that another period of greatness in black history developed, the reign of Muhammad Ali. His greatness and might in the ring improved African American recognition and pride. In this sculpture, Barthe chose the right moment, material and sport. Aaron Douglas in his murals “Aspects of Negro Life”: The Negro in an African setting, he uses art to depict the African cultural background of the African American (Douglas, 2008 p300). In this painting he described the African American art, dance and sculpture as ideas to be proud of. The dancers, drummers and curved fetish represent the joy and rhythmic beats of life in Africa. Douglas represent a world where dance, art are mashed up to happy times. To this he means that African American culture is a paradise. In summary, the Harlem renaissance was an era where the African American realized their worth in society and stood up for their rights. They did not resort to physical confrontation, but they used art, dance and literature to develop ways of countering white suppression. Richmond Barthe and Aaron Douglas are among the notable African American artists of this era. They used their type of art to inform the African American society about their worth in the society. Richmond used sculptures to depict different aspects of African American society. The most famous work is the boxer, a sculpture that gained much public attention since it opened African American representation in league sports. Muhammad Ali developed as a renowned boxer after this sculpture was mad by Richmond Barthe. Aaron Douglas, on the other hand, used paintings and murals to explain the pride and worth of the African American cultures. He set the stage ready for other graphic artists to develop their art to help the African American rise from the dusts of suppression. Bibliography Black, Patti Carr. 2009. American masters of the Mississippi Gulf Coast: George Ohr, Dusti Bongé, Walter Anderson, Richmond Barthe. Jackson, MS: Mississippi Arts Commission. Bloom, Harold. 2004. The Harlem Renaissance. Philadelphia, Pa: Chelsea House Publishers. Douglas, Aaron. 2008. Aaron Douglas: Harlem Renaissance artist. [Nashville, Tenn.]: Fisk University. Schulman, Daniel, and Peter Max Ascoli. 2009. A force for change: African American art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Chicago, IL: Spertus Museum. Vendryes, Margaret Rose. 2008. Barthé: a life in sculpture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Read More