Aaron Douglas

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For a Canadian actor of same name, see Aaron Douglas (actor).

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

Aaron Douglas (May 26, 1900 – February 3, 1979) was a American painter and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Early life

A native of Topeka, Kansas, Douglas received his B.A. degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1922. In 1928-29, he studied in Paris on a grant from the Barnes Foundation. In 1937, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for 29 years. Douglas’ use of African 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.

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' ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}.

Douglas’ art illustrated the ‘New Negro’ philosophy: he painted murals for public buildings and produced illustration and cover designs for many black publications such as The Crisis and Opportunity. His most famous illustrations were for James Weldon Johnson’s book of poetic sermons, God’s Trombones.

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.

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