Aaron Douglas

Aaron Douglas (May 26, 1898 – February 3, 1979) was an African American painter and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Early life

A native of Topeka, Kansas, Douglas graduated from Topeka High School in 1917. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1922. In 1925, Douglas moved to New York City, settling in Harlem. Just a few months after his arrival he began to produce illustrations for both "The Crisis" and "Opportunity", the two most important magazines associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He also began studying with Winold Reiss, a German artist who had been hired by Alain Locke to illustrate "The New Negro". Reiss's teaching helped Douglas develop the modernist style he would employ for the next decade. Douglas’s engagement with African and Egyptian design brought him to the attention of W. E. B. DuBois and Alain Locke, who were pressing for young African American artists to express their African heritage and African American folk culture in their art.

For the next several years, Douglas was an important part of the circle of artists and writers we now call the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to his magazine illustrations for the two most important African-American magazines of the period, he illustrated books, painted canvases and murals, and tried to start a new magazine showcasing the work of younger artists and writers. It was during the early 1930s that Douglas completed the most important works of his career, his murals at Fisk University and at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).

Throughout his early career, Douglas looked for opportunities to increase his knowledge about art. In 1928-29, Douglas studied African and Modern European art at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania on a grant from the foundation. In 1931 he traveled to Paris, where he spent a year studying more traditional French painting and drawing techniques at the Academie Scandinave.

Later life

In 1937, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for 29 years. Coinciding with this move was a shift to a more traditional painting style, including portraits and landscapes like the one at right.

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Douglas was known for his semi-abstract, hard-edged style which synthesized aspects of modern European, ancient Egyptian, and West African art. Douglas was first recognized as an illustrator, and many of his early works are black and white drawings that show some affinities with Art Deco illustrations from the same period. His paintings consisted of flat forms, hard edges, and repetitive geometric shapes. His painting style is distinguished in part by a very unusual use of color. Large bands of color radiate from the important objects in each painting, and where these bands intersect with other bands or other objects, the color changes. He wanted people to understand African-American spiritual identity, and, in some ways, he may have succeeded: Douglas was often called the 'Father of African American art' #if:NAMESPACE| |.and he fuck my dad

References

* Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, "A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present" (Pantheon, 1993)
* "Douglas, Aaron". "American National Biography." New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 6:789-790.
* Kirschke, Amy Helene. "Aaron Douglas: Art, Race, and the Harlem Renaissance." Jackson, Miss. : University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
* Myers, Aaron. "Douglas, Aaron." "Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002." CD-ROM. 2002 ed. Redmond, Wa. : Microsoft, 2001.
* http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/text/adouglas.html
* http://www.aarondouglas.ku.edu