David Driskell lecture, "The Harlem Renaissance in Retrospect: An Introduction," at the University of Iowa, August 1970

Speaker 1: The following is the first in a series of five lectures by David Driskell delivered at the 1970 Institute of Afro American Culture held on the campus of the University of Iowa. The Institute held August 9th through the 21st focused on the culture of black America, commonly referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. In this recording, David Driskell, Professor of Art at Fisk University, speaks on the Harlem Renaissance in retrospect. An introduction. David Driskell: The period that I'm attempting to talk about this morning, I'm sure that much of the information that I shall attempt to give you has already been covered. But I would like to try and present some of this from the perspective of the artist, the visual artist. What was he doing? What was the background leading up to his involvement in this, and possibly how did he differ in some respects from the literary artist, or the musicians, and what have you. David Driskell: Well, it was the call of the heavy industry after World War I that brought many blacks from the South to the industrial centers of the North. In less than one year's time, 118,000 blacks left the sunny South journeying from rural areas to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and Connecticut. All of this took place in one year in 1917. In contrast to a statement which was made in the New York Times just yesterday, the migration figure is down to something like 88,000 in one decade now against say 100,000 in the decade prior to the '50s. So there has been this drastic change. And this movement or the migration, which was to a certain extent, a cause for the stir up which took place in Harlem. David Driskell: These people of course, went to other centers as well, but Harlem seemingly became the Mecca or the great center or the haven. For those who left the south, life in the Northern cities was much different. There was signs of improvement for the average migrant, but much was left to be desired when it came to real meaningful change. Many persons imagined that they were traveling North to a literal land of milk and honey, only to find that they were thought of as outcasts from the very beginning. To the already established black worker they posed a threat at the work level as they were often willing to work any job requested to them without adequate consideration for the wages already being paid to blacks who were there on these jobs. David Driskell: The white working class looked upon the black migrant as a misfit in a white man's world, and these people were willing to afford him all of the very meager things for his existence. One good thing in the black man's favor seemed to have been the industrial needs which came out of the war. The North had a great need for people to fill the industry and to strengthen the economy. And the whites for the most part were occupying the prestigious positions, and some of them were still away in the war in the European theater. On this account of the great migration, which has been the subject of the work of artists, poets, and musicians, this particular article appeared in the New York World around 1917. David Driskell: And I quote, "The World correspondence after interviewing several hundreds of Negros and white peoples in this section of the country has found the chief reason for the tremendous flow of colored citizens to the North, to be one, the natural desire, to get a promised increase of wages, accompanied by a free ride to the field of labor, two, to gratify a natural impulse, to travel and see the country, three to better the condition of the Negro by freer use of schools and other advantages offered in the North, East, and West, four, the desire of some Negroes to escape the persecution of the thoughtless and irresponsible white people who mistreat them, and five to see the fulfillment of a dream, to be on a social equality with white people, six the Negro who is educated, wants to go away. He can vote and take part in the running of the government." End of quote. David Driskell: The dominant reason for the migration seemingly was money. And to continue this quote, "The luring tales of the labor agent have been made or rather have made the Southern Negro long for the North. He is in a state of unrest. Every sane Negro in the state of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee has heard of the recruiting man from the North who has come South to take the Negro to his real friends, great excitement prevails in the entire cotton belt. Crops are shot and many Negroes will idle the way the time in Spring, unless they can leave the cotton plantations. The bowl weevil and the floods destroyed thousands of acres of cotton on the Mississippi this year left hundreds of Negroes penniless. This is why to call for the labor met such a ready response in some regions." End of quote. David Driskell: New York City had few basic industries, but many commercial enterprises. It had art galleries and supposedly good schools. The blacks who migrated there were greatly impressed with the educational and cultural offerings of the city. Master conductor, James Reese Europe had shown the New York society folk, meaning the white citizens who had finally created for themselves a desire to know what a black man was doing. He showed them what a little help and time couldn't do in the organization of the fine orchestra, which he called the Clef Club. And this appeared as early as 1913 in Harlem. This marvelous group of musicians, 125 strong, played all the instruments of the orchestra and saying as well. This of course excited their audience very much. Since the Negro population in New York lived for the most part in an area bordering Central Park and Park Avenue, there was some opportunity for limited mingling of the races. David Driskell: A growing interest among whites in the raw and seemingly easily life of the Harlem blacks brought them crowding, brought whites crowding into the cabarets and the dens of entertainment where one could find the talents of young emerging artists later to play an important role in the founding of a movement now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Many whites were in search of a new kind of exotica in life, bordering on what was characterized as the primitive form. Carl Van Vechten, author, critic and famous photographer was looked upon as the discoverer of the Harlem folklore type. His viable and favorable bestseller in 1926 called Nigger Heaven, took the scene by storm and made Harlem the by word of New York culture. David Driskell: Van Vechten was a good friend of Alfred Stieglitz another photographer of great fame. Stieglitz was married to the famous American painter, Georgia O'Keeffe. In the white society circles in which van Vechten wandered in and out made him an excellent propaganda chief for all the New Negro Movement. Van Vechten had sincere intentions when he reasoned that the elite white society and the elite colored intellectuals, which white society had previously ignored, could come together on the level of a pretense of middle class values and help to break down the racial prejudice which existed to some extent. In January, 1923, professor Franz Boas as of Columbia University, who was then considered America's foremost, anthropologists spoke to a large and appreciative audience after 135th Street Library and denounced racial superiority, and the minute theories on which white Americans had written to fame and fortune at the expense of their black brothers. David Driskell: His address made it very clear that he felt that the black man had been misrepresented and mistreated. Race, he said it was a very hard term to define since there are no hard and fast lines between it, similar characteristics were to be found in all races that are supposed to be widely apart, he said. And there are certain characteristics that are common to all humanity. This he made clear. Professor Boas, his theory regarding race, his theories rather regarding race rather, were well received by W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and Locke of course later was to be designated the leader of this new movement. And also by the bright and youthful scholar, Charles S. Johnson. Johnson became a good friend of the poets and writers of his day and became a lifelong friend of Carl Van Vechten. David Driskell: It was during Johnson's later years while he was president of Fisk university, that he prevailed upon his friendship with Carl Van Vechten to influence Georgia O'Keeffe in establishing the Carl Van Vechten gallery of fine arts at Fisk honoring Alfred Stieglitz, in which Mrs. O'Keeffe deposited many fine works by American and European artists. This concept of intellectual exchange between the black and white communities continued beyond the official dates of what is now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. The black writers of Harlem, but not willing to accept the various stereotypes placed upon them by the white community. The defeat of Booker T. Washington's conciliatory attitude by W.E.B. Du Bois' more militant position on the black man's place in American society had a great deal to do with the development of new spirit among blacks in all media. It may be rightfully reasoned that the argument between Du Bois in Washington paved the way intellectually for the New Negro Movement, consequently, the Harlem Renaissance. David Driskell: We are all aware of the fact that Washington made his famous statement in a quote, "In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers yet as a one as a hand in all things essential to mutual progress." End of quote. His statement was agreeable to the whites of the industrial North, as well as those of the agricultural South. It seemed to renounce political struggle, higher education, civil rights, all being in the vanguard things designed by the emerging middle class of the black intellectuals. David Driskell: Washington's death in 1915 created no historical niche for him in the protocols of the New Negro Movement. It was obvious that he would not be included among those noble minds who founded the Harlem Renaissance and consequently would not be considered one of its inspirers. Du Bois argued for a demonstration of the black man's humanity by capturing the interest of the white audience with a theory of the talented 10th. Regarding this position an exclusive yet fair compromise in the electrical community, Du Bois won himself an important place on the roster of greats, who championed what we described as Negro rights and those days in the arts and in politics. This new spirit of militancy and self-pride brought together many fine minds who went their separate ways, proclaiming the new Negro, the new awakening, consequently, the Harlem Renaissance.It became a flourishing of the arts among blacks, primarily in Harlem. David Driskell: With an increase in racial consciousness and black pride. The like of which had never been seen or heard of before persons of African descent proclaim that past and imagery is a great and above all beautiful one. Marcus Garvey argued for strong men of the race and staunch leaders to come forth. His vision of the union of all black peoples created an imaginary picture of black pride and ethno-nationalism unlike any previously exposed. After Garvey had passed off the scene intellectuals such as Alain Locke wrote of the changes, Alain Locke that were dignifying the struggle for cultural and political freedom. David Driskell: In 1925, Locke wrote the following in the March Symposium of Survey Graphics, and I quote, "In the last decade, something beyond the watch and guard of statistics has happened in the life of the American Negro. And the three norms who have traditionally presided over the Negro problem have changeling in their laps. The sociologist, the philanthropist, the race leader are not unaware of the new Negro, but they are at loss to count for him. He simply cannot be swayed into their formula. For the young generation is vibrant with a new psychology. The new spirit has awakened the masses and under the very eyes of the professional observer it is transforming what has been a perennial problem into the progressive phases of contemporary Negro life. To all this, the new Negro is keenly responsible or responsive as an augury of a new democracy in American culture. He is contributing his share to the new social understanding." David Driskell: "Negro genius today relies upon the race gift is a spiritual endowment from which our best developments have come and must come. Racial expression as a conscious motive it is true is fading out of the latest art, but just as surely, the age of the true or fine group's expressions coming in, for race does not need to be deliberate to be vital. Indeed it is best it never is. This was a case with our instinctive and quite matchless folk art and begins to be the same again, as we approach our cultural maturity and a phase of art that promises now to be fully represented." End of quote. David Driskell: Alain Locke, now the uncontested spokesman for the new Negro had seized the time to talk with certainty about the newly emerging form and the works of poets and visual artists. Of the ports he wrote, quote, "Our poets have now stopped talking, speaking rather for the Negro. They speak as Negroes. Where formerly, they spoke to others and tried to interpret they now speak to their own and try to express." He explained that race for the artist of the period have become an idiom of experience, which offered a deepening of vision relating to the lifestyle of the people. David Driskell: And this of course was becoming an art of self-sufficiency. Some black artists treated the emerging spirit of black pride and nationalism in the arts as an undesirable element and thought of it as something to overcome. They reasoned that Du Bois had exhorted them to be aware of the craze of the return to the past. And was it not more sensible to look to the date when they would be accepted into the mainstream of American society, along with their white brothers and [inaudible] in the past of slavery and deprivation. This rising racial consciousness caused some artists to question the use of African motifs in the art. The question at the hand related to the transformation of African forms into a meaningful imagery with a black subculture in America. David Driskell: Regarding the dilemma facing these artists that they James Porter wrote in 1943, "Some Negro writers and scientists question this insistence on a racial heritage. They saw that such self-conscious pursuit of the primitive inevitably would stress a separate and singular form for the American Negro. Between plantation and tradition and African tradition the Negro realist saw little choice, soon opinion was sharply divided. One group contended that to avoid the limitation of white tradition, the Negro must deny everything that might be constructed as derivative from white experience." End of quote. David Driskell: Alain Locke had responded to the above question by stating that, and I quote, "There is a real and vital connection between this new artistic respect for African idiom and the natural ambition of Negro artists for a racial idiom in their own experience." End of quote. He went on to say, "We ought and must have a school racial art, a local and racially represented tradition." David Driskell: In spite of the discussion in vogue about the visual artist's role in this new movement the talk seemed limited almost exclusively to members of the intellectual community and the general public to whom art was being addressed or to whom art should have been addressed as it was being done in some other media, specifically in music seemed left out. Consequently, it seemed as though this was an intellectual movement confined almost exclusively to the middle class black. W.E.B. Du Bois spoke with the shamelessness of the art forms in his possession that had to be used as a tool of propaganda to fit into the political, as well as the cultural arena. He did not wish to limit the visual artist to a world of surface expressions that did not delve into the depths of black culture. David Driskell: His stiff wanting to the artist was, and I quote, "In all sorts of ways we are hemmed in. And are new young artists have got to find their way and fight their way to freedom." End of quote. He urged support for the visual artists in the Crisis. Often calling upon the young artist, Aaron Douglas, to illustrate articles of his publication. Other articles were written in Opportunity urgent support for the Negro artist, but even with this support and interest from prominent leaders in the Negro community, interest in Negro art lagged behind that for Negro literature and music. David Driskell: It was extremely difficult for black officers to gain support from the white world, the stereotypes that whites had of blacks conjuring up dreams of darkness and cotton fields and pick-a-ninnies serving white mistresses decked in the finery of the European market, and black society of feasting on watermelon and fried chicken and high places on a still prevailed. Whites was set on seeing blacks in these positions of inferiority and called all art which did not follow these cannons derivative and uninteresting. Critics refused to review shows which showed little of the exotica and the jungle influence expected of the Negro. Artists were expected to paint the happy slave, the tragic mulatto or the zestful primitive. David Driskell: This fact is borne out by the refusal of critics of the New York Times to make an appraisal and an exhibition by black artists prior to February of 1928. By this time the Harlem Renaissance was well underway and almost on its way out. And some sincere efforts had been made by... However some sincere efforts had been made by serious minded, white organizational patrons of the arts, such as the Harmon Foundation to make the black artists an important contributor to the cultural scene. As early as 1920, the 135th street branch of the New York public library had begun special exhibitions of the work of black artists. In 1924, the Amy Spingarn prizes were set up and the Crisis for persons of African descent for the purpose of encouraging art experience. David Driskell: It was through this competition that Laura Wheeler Waring and [Edward A. Halston], and were introduced to the American public as serious artists seeking to portray modern Negro life. In 1926, the Harmon Foundation started giving awards of excellence to black artists. Ms. Brady, director of the Harmon Foundation, with the assistance of Ms. Evelyn Brown, the associate director hailed the contributions of these artists to American art, and while admonishing them to be proud of the African ancestry talk strongly of a functional art, which met the needs of the society, which seemed at times, artless. David Driskell: Ms. Brady saw no color line in the poverty acceptance of art as it was not readily seen by white Americans as being an essential form at the core of life. She like Carl Van Vechten was well educated, a Vassar graduate, had been accustomed to living with people with various racial and ethnic origin. Her father, a formal territorial governor of Alaska had created within the minds of all of his children, the desire to expand their minds beyond the ordinary habit of complacent living. A friendship with Alain Locke and James V. Herring continued long beyond the boundaries of the Harlem Renaissance. And she relied greatly on that judgment when it came to art. David Driskell: In 1927, a group of black citizens in Chicago organized and sponsored a Negro in art week. It involved a series of talks on Negro art and artists, and it was a company by special exhibition works with local blacks, and it was held at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago. This was the first major effort that the black artists of Chicago had taken to enter the so called mainstream regarding the Negro Renaissance and this idea of Negro art week soon caught on in principle cities, such as Nashville. Where an art club which had been organized by black women as early as 1894, took the lead. Soon after Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, these cities adopted the idea of creating the same kind of art week that Chicago had. And it, of course, related to the same kind of thing that had been going on in New York. David Driskell: In January of 1928, the Harlem, the Harmon Foundation brought together the first major, all Negro exhibition in America. It was held at the international house in New York City. Among the artists whose works were exhibited where Aaron Douglas, Sargent Johnson, Allen Freelon, James A. Porter, then in his first year of teaching in the newly founded our department at Harvard University, Malvin Gray Johnson, Palmer Hayden, Hale Woodruff, Augusta Savage, Laura Wheeler Waring and a host of other artists who were being introduced to the New York public for the first time. Many artists who were not represented in this original exhibition received exposure at a later time under the auspices of the Harmon Foundation. May Howard Jackson, Archibald Motley and William H. Johnson were among those who received this kind of patronage. David Driskell: These later exhibitions continued and they were carried on through around 1933. By this time the foundation had organized five exhibitions consisting of prizes from the various shows that had been organized. And they were sent to various centers throughout the country, nearly half a million people saw these shows in 1933. They featured works by artists who were painting prior to the Harlem Renaissance, such as Henry O. Tanner and [Wilfred J. Russell]. And they served to encourage young black painters to develop their own talents in the visual arts. David Driskell: The art of the Harmon Foundation exhibition was singled out by some art critics as overly indulgent and subject matter and lacking some of the technical competence needed to remove it from the ranks of mediocrity. Regardless of the criticism, given this adventure, one can not lay the blame for subject matter at the doors of the Harmon Foundation, since the artists were free to indulge in subjects of their own choosing. Broad categories, such as portraiture landscape and still life painting were established in these shows. Just as was characteristics of [inaudible] American shows where black artists were not permitted to enter. David Driskell: Cedric Dover riding on the period admits that much of the art of the Harlem Renaissance was not in what might be referred to as good taste and of high quality. But Dover points out, but they're making of good art amongst underprivileged people is necessarily accompanied by the making of more bad art. This always follows in what is referred to as folk art. But even the harshest critics of the time would admit that there was some good in the art exhibitions of the Harlem Renaissance organized by the Harmon Foundation. Much of the art that has come down to us today from this period, period reflects the reality of the time. And was not too different from any other form of art being produced by Americans throughout the country. David Driskell: It did attempt to engage in what might be referred to as a dialogue in the black community. The artists of the period turned away from the complacence of status symbols associated with white culture. And they attempted to paint a reality based in the experience of the lies that they had lived in various parts of the United States before coming to Harlem. The concept of a viable subculture was before each artist who painted and they were all different in many ways. And they tried to bridge what they call the cultural gap. The artists wanted to meet the needs of the people, and this of course required a great deal of orientation. What was commonly referred to as American genre painting. David Driskell: When the Harmon exhibitions first started, the majority of the paintings were of non Negro subjects. It was almost as if the artists were afraid or shame of black subjects. By 1931, however, the situation that changed in black subjects predominated. Alain Locke commented that, and I quote, "It was amazing to see how the technical quality and the vitality of the work had improved as these artists come closer to grips with familiar and well understood subject matter." End of quote. Many black artists believed that the answer to the problems could be found in the African art tradition. This was tied up greatly with racial identity. The new interest in Africa prompted new values designed basically to bridge this gap. James Porter pointed out that many of the artists of this period attempted to imitate the surface patterns and geometric shapes of African sculpture without having a clear conception of African decoration. And the result was that many paintings had a stilted quality. David Driskell: Alain Locke believed that African art could give little to the American artists. If it went through direct imitation, he did believe however that it could offer great inspiration to black artists in America if they attempted to understand the meaning and form of it. He believed that black artists should attempt to reflect upon their lives in the black community. Langston Hughes, James Weldon-Johnson, Sterling Brown, Arthur Davis and many others of the period set forth themselves what seemed to be the specific task of documenting the times through writing in various forms of poetry. Many painters and sculptors were doing the same thing through their art, but some of them recorded people and others interpreted the spirit of the time. Alain Locke chose only to have Aaron Douglas represent the new black artists in his book called the New Negro published in 1925. And could we have the first slide please? David Driskell: The picture on my right is that of Aaron Douglas and on my left is that of a Bushongo tapestry or if you call it a mat from the Congo. Aaron Douglas, the one who had been called on by Alain Locke to illustrate several works in the crisis had confined much of his design to what might be referred to as African design. And one can see a kinship in his work. And I suppose we'll have to work out some kind of system. If you can hear me beating on the podium, can you hear me, then change the slides when I do that? Now... See what happened to that one? Are we going forward? Yes. David Driskell: I'm sorry. Something has gone wrong. Let's go back to the first one please. Aaron Douglas, as I said, was the person that was to represent the new change. He was looked upon at that time as the most promising, the most vibrant of the young artists. And he took the lead in showing away to the making of a new form for what was referred to at that time as Negro art. For this reason, he became the counterpart to Langston Hughes amongst the visual artists. Could we have on the second section, the next slide. David Driskell: I hope that all of these are not in upside down, but something has happened, but this is the way you would almost see it. If you saw this particular work in the Fisk university library. You would be looking up to it. This is a part of the mural series that Aaron Douglas did. David Driskell: And you'll be hearing more about this in the lecture on Aaron Douglas. And I should not concentrate on that now. But just to show you how he had taken something from African symbolism, the iconography of African art very much revered in his work. And if you could go back to the one just prior to that, and you'll see the statue here, which reflects the same kind of character, the same stance. Now back to the Fisk mural. In some of the figures the kind of organizational element. Now, could we have the next slide on this screen by Douglas? I'll go on to the next one. There's something that's wrong here. David Driskell: Yes. A portrait of a boy, now, Douglas seemingly carried on kind of two styles at once. And this is a portrait of young man. Done in the 1930s, and it is quite different as you see from the more stylistic thing that he was doing with the decoration. The next slide from Douglas, please. And this is his exaltation. Which goes back to the more so-called primitive form, the kind of thing that he was well known for doing. I won't go into the details of explaining this because we'll talk about these in the lecture tomorrow. Next. David Driskell: Would you hold it there now? It is quite important... It was equally important to know the Dr. Locke, who had been singled out as the spiritual father the New Negro Movement, which later became the Harlem Renaissance, continue to publish essays and ideas relating to his philosophy of art after the initial period. Negro Art Past and Present was published in 1936, and the Negro and Art, a book designed to show pictorially the black man's perspective in world art appeared in 1940. David Driskell: Another outstanding Artist of the Negro renaissance, of the Harlem Renaissance was Archibald Motley. Now, which you just leave this particular one on and you may retire the other projector. No, let's leave this one, go back to... Now this one can go off. Now you can just move this over because we'll use just the one here on in. We don't need the second one now, just this one. Now Archibald Motley painted a period. You see a subject here reflecting his cabaret scene, the kind of thing that he painted reflecting Chicago life and also reflecting certain aspects of Harlem life. His painting reflected life in the 20s and truly captured the spirit of that period. Could we focus that just the little? That seems a little out of focus, it may be a bad slide. David Driskell: In 1925, Walter was awarded the Francis Logan Medal by the Chicago Art Institute. In 1928 he held a one man show at the New Galleries in New York and this was when the New York Times critic came to review the first show by black artists in New York City's actually in America as such. Motley was a Roman Catholic and he was extremely proud of his what he referred to as his pygmy ancestry. He was very much interested in Africanisms. He attempted to transform various tribalness in his own manner. David Driskell: His paintings, although they covered African themes, are not quite as exotic as those of Aaron Douglas. Motley was known for his kind of severe realistic style. His works have a different symbolic quality for those Douglas. He went to Paris and he painted in the tradition of the Paris school for a while, and he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Now on his return, he seemed more and more fascinated by the oddities of what was referred to then as Negro life. His paintings began to stress the want and [inaudible] of negro life, all the complacencies and what have you. And sometimes he would depict black people satirically, and other times sympathetically. He often mixed stock realism with distorted shapes. His work was described as highly imaginative, free in rhythm, riotous in color, and he supposedly had a combination of the Dutch realism and American humor in his work. He has been praised for his true artistry and his concept of caricature. He is particularly well known for a series of paintings depicting the cabaret life. David Driskell: The first Harmon Award, next slide, please was won by Palmer Hayden in 1926, for a painting entitled The Scorners, it's not this particular work. Hayden's paintings depicted for the most part bleak, unfriendly tones, meticulously graduated from one value scale to another. He was concerned mainly with water scenes. Soon after winning the Harmon award, he went abroad to study. He studied in Paris and he had one man show in the gallery, Julienne. David Driskell: Mr. Hayden stayed in Paris for about five years traveled around Spain and other places. And he was concerned with depicting the folk type in Paris. And when he returned to the United States, of course, he became interested in what we'll refer to as the black scene. You see this particular work called Midsummer Night in Harlem and it was painted in the 20s. And it shows a kind of gregariousness or kind of aggressive attitude about all of the harsh living conditions that prevailed in that particular city. David Driskell: The next slide, please. And he came down to a kind of folklore of a type in his work also with the 20s. And you have in this particular one which has a rather comical title, When Tricky Sam Shot Father Lamb. And so you see the excitement of what happens on the street corner in the black community when someone is shot. Possibly the same kind of thing that Mosley was trying to portray in his cabaret and Saturday night scenes. And his folk song, as you see in this particular work, and we will devote some more time to him later in the lecture, called The Followers of the Harlem Renaissance, where we go into an explanation of his John Henry series. But he became kind of a style maker in many ways, and His work of course is widely regarded as documentary as well as comical. And it shows something of the life of the period. David Driskell: This, of course, is his famous baptizing scene, which goes back to a kind of imaginary painting, reflecting his life in rural Virginia where he grew up. But this of course was painted in Harlem as a part of the same scene, of course, reflects Midsummer Night and other such paintings. He was interested in the certain kind of symbolism in his work, and he was, of course, trying to carry through a kind of Christian ethic. And so one sees the traditional symbols of Christianity here. The serpent in the foreground which represents evil and costs the idea of baptism which is cleansing from sin and what have you, and the spectators all of this a part of the so called American scene. The next slide, please. David Driskell: Hale Woodruff was another modernist to the period. He, like many other artists of that period studied for a while in Paris, and upon his return from Paris, he became an art instructor at Atlanta University. Woodruff painted mostly landscape from the very beginning and later change to formal abstract compositions. This is one of the few compositions, easel paintings where one sees something that what might be referred to as Negro life. And this is called Foot Washing. This is taken from an episode in the primitive Baptist Church, commonly referred to in the south is a Hard Shell Baptist. Where the people are noted to wash your feet in very, very cold water, even in winter, and they may have to break ice to do it. And so this scene of course is captivated by this particular episode reflecting certain aspects of black folklore. David Driskell: His most celebrated work in the sense of the mural arts, is probably the Amistad mural scenes at Talladega College located in the Slavery library. Once the Amistad mutiny, which took place around 1839, when this ship the Amistad was overtaken by blacks who had come from Sierra Leone, and were being transported to the West Indies. They took over the ship and hopefully steered it back to Africa, they found out that the captain had deceived them and had steered the ship to the coast of Connecticut. David Driskell: They were then put on trial and went before several courts finally working their way all up to all the way up to the Supreme Court where John Quincy Adams defended them and they eventually were given their freedom. Another episode. And this young man was one of the interpreters who could speak the Mende language and speak English as well and was able to give a consistent testimony throughout the trial. It was an actual trial that took place. David Driskell: And this is the leader of the revolt, Jacques Cinque who, of course, was able to convince the jury that they had been taken unlawfully, and they were finally returned to Africa, where you see the jubilation that takes place in this particular series of murals. Woodruff also painted what he called the social injustice is of the period and I think unfortunately, one of the slides got mixed in from the very beginning, it was a scene called Giddy Up which shows a lynching which took place in Georgia. David Driskell: Now, if we could hold out for just a minute this is not the work of James Porter, but I should just mention that he was of course an outstanding artist and critic the period, even though he did not date back to the early parts of 1917, what have you. He came along a little later. He was especially interested in capturing the spirit of the times. His works include portraits, still lifes, as well as murals. His drawings have been praised for their precise attitude people and his oils have been called revelations of soul. He won a Harmon award 1928 and the Arthur Schoenberg portrait prize in 1933. Many people feel that he, as a critic in later years, more or less sidestepped his great calling to be an artist. But of course you know that he became one of the very, very important historians and consequently, one should really say the most authoritative books or book that was written on the Negro subject in art was written by James Porter in 1943. David Driskell: William H. Johnson was another artist of importance during the period, and you'll see how he started off painting, depicting what might be referred to as traditional black life. And this is a portrait of a girl and his family. But of course, his style was soon to change. He started at the National Academy of Design in New York, as around 1926 when he worked intensely before going abroad. He copied cartoons. And this was actually the first contact that he had had with works of art prior to going to New York. And so the caricature aspect of his work prevailed even when he became what might be referred to as a fine draftsman. David Driskell: Upon his returned from France, he received great praise for his work and in 1930, he won the Harmon gold medal. He was accustomed to painting the scenes around his native Florence, South Carolina. And also, when he returned from Europe, he became interested in what might be referred to a cabaret scene, very much the same kind of thing that Motley, and of artists of the period had turned to. And you'll see his Boogie Woogie concept here. David Driskell: This was a kind of flat interpretation of paint, which supposedly reflects the rhythm. And these were done mainly in tempura, sometimes not egg tempura, but just plain poster tempuras, and he of course carried many of them out, many of these same things out in silk screens. We'll have a complete lecture on William Johnson so I won't labor on him too long. But the way he was able to capture the ordinary type, to give a kind of a serenity to his portraits and same time add what he called a primitive quality was very, very exciting. David Driskell: Folks at Home on the Farm. This particular one reflecting on his life in rural South Carolina. And then when it turns to religious scenes, he became the first black artist in America to actually concentrate on what might be referred to as black themes and Christianity. Now Henry O. Tanner, you will recall, was a great religious painter, quote, religious in the sense that he was really making interpretations of white Christianity. And the Bible of course was always interpreted through white characters. David Driskell: Not to Johnson. As early as the 1920s, 1930s he was making way with scenes like this, Deposition, and the dissent from the cross and others that fall into the category of great Christian themes that have been carried out throughout the ages by artists. And then Laura Wheeler Waring was considered one of the important portrait painters of the period. She was interested in the social stratum from which her subjects came, she made use of closely studied color harmony, and her works have been said to boarder on expressionism, but she of course, was one of those artists who was introduced by the Harmon foundation. And taught painting for a number of years at the Cheyney College in Pennsylvania. David Driskell: Malvin Gray Johnson, a self portrait here was another painter of this period. Mr. Johnson was interested in transforming, or transferring the spirit of Negro life on canvas. He come from rural Virginia, and in migrated to Harlem, where he was considered one of the very important painters up until the time of his death. He died an early age about 30 in 1933. And unfortunately, we will not able to see what might be referred to as the genius of this young man, by his works are referred to as Negro soul, folk soul. David Driskell: This is Picking Corn and his domestic, which of course, is carrying out the ordinary chores of house, of living. Among the sculptors of the period, in the Harlem Renaissance, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, she was one of the older ones and she died about three years ago at the age of 90. May Howard Jackson, Augusta Savage, Sargent Johnson who died a few years ago and Richmond Barthé, still alive. And joining the ranks later was William Artis, and Elizabeth Catlett, who, of course, cannot be considered a part of the Harlem Renaissance but she was greatly influenced by the works of the Renaissance, and was a student here at the University of Iowa. As a matter of fact, first black woman to receive a Master's in art from Iowa. David Driskell: This particular work is a head called Jimmy by Richmond Barthé and it shows his idealistic concept of art that he could move into what might refer to as classicism. And at the same time, he was able to capture that delicate feeling which is carried on into sculpture of the Negro personality. This is his getting groovy. And the rhythm of the period, you see, these artists were beginning to become concerned with the lifestyle, what we refer to today as the lifestyle of the period and ow, many artists today assume that they are the first ones to get involved in this kind of thing. And it's unfortunate they have not looked back into history because there was so many of the artists of that period who really were cutting off their own bread by doing these kinds of things. They made tremendous sacrifices. Nobody bought William Johnson's paintings, because nobody was interested in black subjects, especially about Christianity. How could God be black, they said. And so for many years, of course, these paintings just stayed around. David Driskell: Finally, the Harmon Foundation, bought them out lock stock and barrel and put them in storage. And this is one reason why I always have to come to the defense of the Harmon Foundation. Because these people had an insight, which had not been recognized even by some of the people who were trying to push movement. And they put these works aside and now today, they're in important collections. Like at Fisk we have some 50 or 60 of Johnson's works that have come from the Harmon foundation. We have some of Richmond and Barthé's works, some of William Artis, we have some 41 or so of Jacob Lawrence's works. And there are others in the National Archives and the Smithsonian collection in Washington, which can be seen as well. So you have these kinds of scenes out of that period, and of course, the attitude of sculpture for commission, like the murals that you have in the work of Richmond Barthé in his John the Baptist. And this work also by Barthé that you saw from another angle. David Driskell: Unfortunately, we don't have a work by Sargent Johnson. Johnson was really not what you would refer to as a main contributors to the Harlem Renaissance from the very beginning, but he moved in later. And of course, he got in on the Harmon Awards. And so his work must be classified as a part of that movement. But we move on to a young artist of the period, William Artis. And Artis, of course, this is an early portrait of him at work on his famous bust of Catherine Cornell. But he also did for the most part works centering around what was referred to then as the negro theme, and the very handsome modeling that one sees in his work, startling fact that comes through and yet the character with just a bit of character enough to make it a personal style of his own as one season this particular work. Speaker 4: Excuse me, could you spell his last name. David Driskell: A-R-T-I-S. And he teaches at... Is it Mankato? Speaker 4: Makato. David Driskell: Mankato State College in Minnesota. Grand old gentlemen, and we'd be delighted if you're up in that area, we'd be delighted to meet you and talk to you and take you through the studio. And has much to offer from the point of view of his association with the men of the Renaissance. David Driskell: People have said that his work was simple and highly stylized, but one sees here again, a kind of classical orientation. Because all of these artists were trained in the academic tradition and they did not try to go overboard toward and ask African iconography. You will notice that he preferred to work mostly in clay. And the heads that you're seeing are life sized. David Driskell: It is also said that he took kind of a middle of the road position as far as style because he didn't go overboard. As I say previously about this involvement in African style. He certainly was not closely connected to what Alain Locke refer to as our ancestral art form. But at the same time, he was portraying what was referred to at that time as Negro character. David Driskell: Then, I mentioned Elizabeth Catlett, who studied at Harvard University and became a product indirectly the period because he was greatly influenced by Richmond Barthé. He was at one time married to the eminent draftsman, Charles White, and so on can see some of the same kind of stylization in her work that you see in White's drawings. This period has been called the Harlem Renaissance, because it was a revival of interest and awakening. David Driskell: And it was not a revival in the sense that this kind of thing had gone on before in Harlem, so much as it was that the black man was regaining his perspective in world art. He was relying to a great extent on his heritage, which was African in origin. It was an extremely important period, the cultural history of the Afro American. It was Henry Moore, who said, "I believe that the best artists have always had their roots in a definite social group, or community or in a particular region. The artist during the Harlem Renaissance tried to draw upon the inspiration of the black experience to create what is commonly referred to today as black art." Thank you. Speaker 1: That was David Driskell, Professor of art at Fisk University with the Harlem Renaissance in Retrospect, an Introduction. A lecture delivered at the 1970 Institute of Afro-American culture held on the campus of the University of Iowa, August 9 through the 21st. This is the first in a series of five lectures by Professor Driskell on the art of the Harlem Renaissance and was recorded by the Broadcasting Service of the University of Iowa.