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A brief summary of African American art

Jana Talke
by Jana Talke February 27, 2021
The African American population contributed significantly to the US-American art scene, and even though - as we are all well aware - art history has been far from fair, it has nevertheless produced a high number of talented, prolific and famous black artists, many of them women. And I am not talking about today, but even before the Civil War! Let's have a look. 

The first known African American artist is Joshua Johnson, born into slavery, freed as a young man, active in the late 17th and early 18th century in Baltimore, painting portraits and landscapes. The lithographer and abolitionist Patrick H. Reason and the enslaved Scipio Moorhead are two well-known artists from the period of late 18th until late 19th century. The majority of black artists from that time were from the freed North, with abolitionists serving as art patrons; nonetheless, the most prominent black painters chose to emigrate to Europe to have more liberties in their ability to paint, like Mary Edmondia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Topics and styles at that time are very closely intertwined with European and white American ones - realist / Neo-classicist landscape, portraiture, ancient myth and European history. But there are exceptions, of course - Edmondia Lewis - a black and Native American woman, one of the first to be accepted into Oberlin, worked on sculptures about her heritage, among other themes. Some of the most famous works by Robert Seldon Duncanson and Henry Ossawa Tanner depict African Americans. 

After the Civil war, museums start exhibiting works by black artists.

Robert S. Duncanson, 'Uncle Tom and little Eva', 1853


Edmondia Lewis, 'Forever Free', 1867

Henry O. Tanner, 'The Banjo Lesson', 1893

In the 20th century, black artists focus on highlighting African American life. The Harlem Renaissance, a movement of music, literature, art and fashion in NYC, seeked to emancipate, distinguish and also assimilate the black population within white America, predominantly in the 1920s. The historical turmoils of the first half of 1900 manifested themselves in very different ways - Aaron Douglas painted murals on abolition and segregation; Hale Aspacio Woodruff depicted life during the Great Depression, Horace Pippin painted his experiences in WWI, Norman Lewis showed the struggles of poverty and desperation in 'The Dispossessed (Family)' from 1943. 

Archibald Motley, Self-portrait, 1933

Horace Pippin, Sunday Morning Breakfast, 1943


After WWII, many black American artists immigrated to Europe once again in quest of better opportunities and success. In the 1960s, African American artists were slowly more recognized, among them Romare Bearden and Jacob Laurence. In 1965, the 'Black Arts Movement' was born with the founding of Black Arts Repertory Theater School in Harlem; in the 1970s, feminist artists like Faith Ringgold and Elizabeth Catlett gain recognition. In 1972, black artist Howardena Pindell co-founded the first artist-directed gallery for women artists in the US, in the same year, Alma Thomas was the first black woman to have a solo show at the Whitney. In the 1980s and 90s, many black artists embraced graffiti art. 
I would like to single out just two African American artists (otherwise this post will get too long) that have done momentous work in the 2nd half of the 20th century - Sam Gilliam and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the 1960s, abstract art was often considered controversial for black artists, because social realism was the norm - depicting social injustice, the heroes of the Civil Rights movement. Gilliam pursued abstraction nevertheless and invented the strecher-less canvas - flowing, draped cloth, hanging, as if floating, through the rooms, 'freed' from the walls - this beautiful, innovative approach secured his place at the Biennale of Venice in 1972 and 2017.
In his very short life, Basquiat managed to develop a highly unique style, to be highly prolific and to also be extremely commercially popular. He refused to be categorized as a graffiti artist, and his work might be closest to Neo-expressionism - a mixture of styles, materials, poetry, symbols. He painted on house walls, doors, windowsills. This constant crossing of artistic boundaries and endless creativity have made his legacy so rich and valuable.

The 21st century is only 21 years old, but the American art scene is boasting with young African American talent like Kara Walker, Amy Sherald, Kehinde Wiley and Rashid Johnson. The future is looking bright.


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