In a 1925 letter to his future wife, Alta Sawyer, Aaron Douglas writes, "At my present rate of progress, I'll be a giant in two years. A veritable black terror. They (White America) believe that a black artist is impossible."
The exhibition, Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, (on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through Aug. 3 and from Aug. 30 to Nov. 30 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), proves that black art is not only possible but that understanding it is crucial to understanding American history.
In addition to being a gifted artist, Douglas was also a masterful storyteller. The exhibition places his work in the context of the turbulent period of racial and social upheaval in the United States and situates him within the larger framework of how race and race relations influenced modern art in America.
Douglas was ahead of his time, both in his embrace of black history as American history and as a modernist whose art embodied social-justice principles. What makes Douglas' paintings so compelling is their inspirational qualities -- they encourage the viewer to embrace the painful moments in American history and to transcend them.
Born in 1899 in Topeka, Kansas, Douglas spent most of his early years in the Midwest, where he studied art at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and became an art instructor at the segregated Lincoln High School in Kansas City. After reading a special issue of the journal Survey Graphic called "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro," Douglas decided to move there, joining hundreds of other artists, writers, and musicians who made Harlem a thriving center for black culture.
From there, his artistic career took off. In Harlem, Douglas met the Harvard-educated black philosopher Alain Locke, whose seminal book, The New Negro, discusses the ways in which modern art, literature, and music could be used to liberate blacks from oppressive thinking. Douglas collaborated with Locke to provide illustrations for the book, showcasing his graphic skills with the use of flat figures, abstract patterns, and Art Deco designs to create his signature style.
During this period, which came to be called the Harlem Renaissance, black culture flourished, but it was also a moment when interracial collaboration between artists challenged the boundaries that segregation had created. One of Douglas' most influential mentors was the German illustrator and portraitist Winold Reiss, who opened an art school in Harlem. In 1926, Douglas provided illustrations for white photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten's controversial novel, Nigger Heaven. These relationships provided opportunities for artists to develop a better understanding of life on the other side of the color line.
At the height of Douglas' career, however, race relations in America were more strained than ever. In the 1920s and 1930s, lynchings terrorized the black community, many of whose members still lived in poverty, and segregation was a constant source of humiliation in blacks' daily lives. Douglas' ability to synthesize black history with contemporary politics makes his works potent social commentary.
The exhibition includes works Douglas painted throughout his career. In his 1926 woodblock prints based on playwright Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer-prize winning play, The Emperor Jones, Douglas captures a moment when black Americans looked to Haiti and Haitian history for examples of liberation and successful black leadership O'Neill's controversial play was critical of messianic leaders -- the main character, Brutus Jones, is an escaped convict turned tyrant.
Douglas' prints provide a black modernist's perspective on The Emperor Jones. The series uses flat surfaces and the stark black-and-white contrast between the ink and paper to enhance the sense of drama in each print. The print, "Defiance," for example, depicts Jones in a military uniform with a pistol, standing in a lush Caribbean forest. Jones looks directly at his enemy and appears unafraid, challenging both white fears and black hopes for militant change.
Another remarkable historical work on display, "The Founding of Chicago" (gouache, 1940), also reconnects the United States to its complex relationship with Haiti. Chicago founder Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable was Haitian, and Douglas depicts the leader standing among the foliage pointing toward a bustling metropolis. Behind him, a female slave, still bound by chains, lifts her child toward the urban skyline, exposing the infant to a life beyond bondage. At this time Chicago, like Harlem, was undergoing its own black cultural renaissance, and art that emphasized black achievement was instrumental in cultivating racial pride. In a single gouache, Douglas uses migration as a theme to highlight blacks' roles in several vital moments in Chicago's history.
Douglas was also a muralist, producing several murals throughout the country, most of which tackled large-scale subjects in black history. His 1934 mural, "Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery to Reconstruction," is a visual history of black contributions to the American economy. Silhouetted black figures move from picking cotton in the antebellum period to breaking slavery's shackles at the end of the Civil War, to jubilant musical celebration. Douglas used his palette of light blues, pinks, and greens for the mural, but his rendering of the cotton fields makes this work one of the most seductive pieces in the exhibition. The white cotton bulbs burst from the canvas and catch the eye from every part of the room, serving as a constant reminder of cotton's importance to the American economy and of the black labor that served as the economy's foundation.
The exhibition space uses muted wall colors to create an atmosphere that complements Douglas' work, bringing out the subtle hues of blue, pink, and lavender that are present in many of his paintings. The accompanying documentary and catalog supply viewers with additional images and photographs that are not included in the exhibition.
Although it is meticulous in its exploration of Douglas' impact on American art history, the exhibition raises an essential question: At what point does an African American modernist become an American modernist? Based on the works selected for the exhibition, Douglas makes a compelling case that lynching, slavery, and segregation are crucial issues in American history, filling in gaps in the mainstream historical narrative. His paintings use a modern style to address subjects that all Americans could understand such as freedom, education, and perseverance. For this reason, Douglas deserves recognition as one of America's most influential modern artists. His work not only reminds us that the American dream is a timeless theme woven deep into the fabric of our diverse culture but also that we must work together to create a more equitable society.
