Power Plant, Harlem by Aaron Douglas in oil, 1939.

Aaron Douglas (May 26, 1898 – February 3, 1979) was a American painter and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Download high resolution version (1316x1168, 286 KB)Power Plant, Harlem by Aaron Douglas. ... Download high resolution version (1316x1168, 286 KB)Power Plant, Harlem by Aaron Douglas. ... For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the song by The Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African American art, literature, music and culture in the United States led primarily by the African American community based in Harlem, New York City, after World War I. Literary historians and academics have yet to reach a consensus as to when the period...

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. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Bold text!--The article should start with a good introduction, giving the full complete official name of the School, detail about location (in suburb, downtown, where?), founder and founding name, and affiliation with any larger school system, if applicable. ... The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a state-supported institution of higher learning located in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Often referred to as simply Nebraska or UNL, it is the flagship and largest campus of the University of Nebraska system. ... A 1911 copy of the NAACP journal The Crisis depicting Ra-Maat-Neb, one of the black kings of the Upper Nile. ... Winold Reiss (1886-1953) was born September 16, 1886 in Karlsruhe, Germany. ... Alain LeRoy Locke (1886-1954) was born on September 13, 1886, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania He was an American educator, writer, and philosopher, and is best remembered as a leader and chief interpreter of the Harlem Renaissance. ... W. E. B. DuBois William Edward Burghardt DuBois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an African-American civil rights activist, sociologist, freemason, and scholar. ... Alain LeRoy Locke (1886-1954) was born on September 13, 1886, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania He was an American educator, writer, and philosopher, and is best remembered as a leader and chief interpreter of the Harlem Renaissance. ...

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. 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). The Barnes Foundation is a museum situated in Merino Station, one of the suburbs of Philadelphia in the United States. ... Fisk University is a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. It was established by John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath and Reverend Edward P. Smith and named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmens Bureau. ... The Arthur Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture is part of the New York Public Library. ...

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. Nickname: Music City Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates: Country United States State Tennessee Counties Davidson County Founded: 1779 Incorporated: 1806  - Mayor Bill Purcell (D) Area    - City  526. ... Fisk University is a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. It was established by John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath and Reverend Edward P. Smith and named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmens Bureau. ...

Style

Douglas was known for his abstract, 2-dimensional black and white paintings in which he broke down figures of traditional African styles into geometric objects. 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' ^{[citation needed]}.

Works

• Illustrations for The Crisis and Opportunity, 1925-1930
• Illustrations for James Weldon Johnson, God's Trombones, 1927
• Mural at Club Ebony, 1927 (destroyed)
• Illustrations for Paul Morand, Black Magic, 1929
• Harriet Tubman, mural at Bennett College, 1930
• Symbolic Negro History, murals at Fisk University, 1930
• Dance Magic, murals for the Sherman Hotel, Chicago, 1930-31
• Aspects of Negro Life, murals at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1934

James Weldon Johnson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was a leading American author, poet, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. ... The cover to the 1927 edition of Gods Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse by James Weldon Johnson, with artwork by Aaron Douglas Gods Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse is a 1927 book of poems by James Weldon Johnson patterned after African-American folk sermons. ... Paul Morand (b. ...

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 Hellene. 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