19th Century Black Art.pdf

African American Art 19th Century  The period leading up to the civil war was a time of hope for White America, and was also an opportunity Time Period to determine the identity of the American West. This period was called the Antebellum pe...

African American Art 19th Century  The period leading up to the civil war was a time of hope for White America, and was also an opportunity Time Period to determine the identity of the American West. This period was called the Antebellum period. Manifest Destiny was becoming a popular phrase and ideal. Patton says, "The theme of Manifest Destiny captured the imagination of individuals who, as Albert Boime aptly noted, expressed 'the privileged national ideal, the ruling class aspirations for American society'. Americans were cosmopolitan, still looking to Europe for standards in art and culture while at the same time developing a unique national identity. It's important to note the evolution of America being the child of Europe, and after is establishment in 1776, America looked to Europe as a standard of building their own cultural capital. Art was a mechanism Continued "After the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 the seven states of the South seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy, precipitating the Civil War (18615). Some Christians (especially Quakers and Methodists) continued to see slavery as irreconcilable with Christian faith, a violation of the law of God, and a contradiction of the rights of man." 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed guaranteeing freedom to African Americans. Abolitionists become a crucial part of the development of Black arts. With this information from history, we can see the morals of some parts of American life change, people want equality and use the analysis of the Christian faith to explain and justify the freedom of Black Americans Fine artists "The development of the African American fine artist resulted from a variety of social and economic conditions before and after the Civil War: the ending of the slave trade; the expansion of free black communities and a growing middle and wealthy class of Americans. Many of the free fine artists were mulatto, whose colour and education—often in Europe, sponsored by a parent or an abolitionist society—and access to a higher standard of training provided in the cities privileged them over darker-skinned blacks. This social class distinction, in addition to their skill and the patronage they could attract, determined whether they became fine artists." It's important to note how colorism and racism still played a heavy role in opportunities for Black artists. Even though Black Americans had gained their freedom, class and race were heavily involved on which Black artists were given opportunities. Many of the patrons of these fine artists were European-Americans and Black community leaders who were abolitionists and supported the arts. Remember, The European standard of art was alive in the US and many artists were painting and creating to pertain to that standard. They followed the same path as European artists, with formal training, European Grand Tour, and public visibility. Many Black people started out as Artisans, which was predominant in the Antebellum period, by painting banners and signs. Pottery and the african influence "African American slaves, who outnumbered whites four to one, mostly worked in pottery mills or shops owned and operated by white 'pioneer potters', who were welltodo farmers or planters." Dave the Potter (1780 - 1863) was skilled potter who threw pots for years, There is a recording of over 50 pots he created, most of them being large jars used for storing salted meat and rendered lard. One of his most famous the is Great and Noble Jar, which holds the insciption, "Great Noble Jar/Hold Sheep, goat, or bear. This is evidence of not only is literacy, but his skill as a potter and artist. He was also a poet and used pots to communicate his poems, usually of religious tone. The pot says, "I wonder where is all my relation / Friendship to all—and every nation / Lm Aug 16, 1857 Dave." Storage jar, 1857. Alkaline-glazed stoneware. Dave (later recorded as David Drake; ca. 1801-1870s) David "Dave" Drake  VOodoo Jugs glazed stoneware are face vessels Created slave potters also living in Edgefield District. They made what is considered one of the more inventive stoneware forms in the South. Created between 1860 and 1880 "these 'grotesque jars', and 'voodoo jugs', as they were popularly called, were renamed in 1969 'AfroGeorgian' and 'AfroCarolinian' by white art historian Robert Farris Thompson to denote both the artisan's African heritage and the area of manufacture. " "Edgefield face vessels display a human face on one side of the body, sculpted in relief. As shown in one AfroCarolinian face vessel... create a visually dramatic and animated image. The use of two different clays, the open mouth expression, and the white eyes contrasting against the darker coloured form appear similar to Kongo 'power' statuary, according to African scholars. The knowledge that Kongo slaves worked at the Davies Factory makes the hypothesis that the style and technique is African derived more plausible...Alternatively, as has been recently documented, it could have been a continuance of pottery forms seen in northern Kongo region, where, by the early nineteenth century, the people had transformed the Toby into a more African form and magical object." From what we know, what can we deduce? Quilts "Female slaves continued to dominate textile production in the antebellum period, and after the Civil War women quilters dominated folk art genres. Numerous surviving quilts from the antebellum period are attributed to slaves. On plantations, slave women made quilts on their own or under the supervision of the slave mistress." Learning from family members or the slave mistress, black women excelled in making pieced, commonly called patchwork, appliqué, and embroidered quilts and coverlets." (NOTE We also saw appliques in the quilts at the high and from the textiles in the African art section) Upon seeing their work it is easy to understand how they earned incomes to purchase their freedom." This is an example of how art is now being used a FREEDOM. Not only were these women using their COMMISSIONS AND CAPITAL to PURCHASE their freedom, but they were solidifying artistic technique and patterns for what we know today to be folk art. So much so, that we have the opportunity to visit these quilts at the High Museum last Thursday. HARRIET POWERS Born 1837 - 1911, a former sla ve created powerful narratives about Christian faith, oral traditions in the African American community and autobiography. The second Bib le quilt of c. 1898 was commissioned from Powers by the wives of Atlanta University professors, who had probably seen the first Bib le quilt, exhibited in 1895 in the Negro Building at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atla nta. "Scripture is more here than a story about salvation and redemption; it becomes a metaphor for freedom. Commonly, among black preachers and in the bla ck spirituals, Joshua, Jonah, Moses and Noah were seen as children of the Hebrews, those who were delivered from their persecutors in this world and not in the afterlife. They were seen in the larger context of uniting one's present condition With the ritual and mythical past, and linking it also to the possibility of rebirth in the future. When seen as a post Emancipation period narrative, Powers's quilts confirm the realization of a change from slave to free person, a personal experience of deliverance" So what are we seeing here? Commission from Atla nta University Professors, Religion, and hints toward Freedom. Fine arts The battle between Europe and America continues throughout the period. America has something to prove, as European judgements of the new budding country is that it lacks culture and an impact on the arts. Patton says, "Struggling against the European view that Americans lacked any significant achievement in the arts, young Americans choosing careers in the arts were eagerly greeted as patriots and heroes whose careers proved that the new nation was rising above merely material and commercial endeavours." The American republic demanded American subjects in art and that Americans support the arts. Art was a means of social legitimization among all Americans, a way of transcending lower middleclass origins, and, for blacks, race. The goal of the African American artist was, when seen in a broader cultural context, the same as that of any American artist. Hence African American intellectual Edward M. Thomas's comments in 1862: 'Where the Fine Arts are not reflected, there exists some great fault in construction of a nation, and... the individual.' "The free blacks hoped that education and the political, economic and cultural achievements of individuals would 'uplift' the race. These 'race men' and 'race women', with their exemplary public presence, would expose misconceptions about race and gender stereotypes and the inj ustices of slavery." Art in a way acted as a savior for Black people, to progress us past being only free from slavery, but being free as an American, and establishing what it means to be an American. Robert Scott Duncanson (1821 -72) Robert Scott Duncanson was a self-taught artist He learned by studying and copying engravings of famous European paintings. By 1842, while travelling between Monroe, Michigan, Cincinnati, and Detroit, he was painting mostly abolitionist portraits and landscapes. Within approximately fifteen years he was proclaimed the best landscape painter in the West', earning his reputation during frequent trips abroad to exhibit in Canada, Scotland, England, and Italy, becoming the first black to receive international recognition. "In 1853, Duncanson travelled with William Sonntag to Italy. Around that time, Duncanson finished his most familiar work, Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River  Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River It functions as a national landscape. "The emphasis is on wilderness, with little evidence of man's intrusion. By using the popular image of boy in nature as a narrative device, Duncanson humanizes the landscape, alluding to innocence. The central opening of space, the shimmering area of water, and triangular framing of the sky by trees, convey a sense of expectancy in what lies over the horizon, reflecting a spirit of optimism that typified Jacksonian America." Land of the Lotus Eaters, 1861 A panoramic view of lush, tropical land overgrown with delicately rendered exotic foliage, with serpentine rivers and streams, mountain peaks in the far distance, and an overall golden tonality. Here the scenery, like theatre, is partly constructed, both artificial and real. Duncanson used the painting technique and style of luminism: a lack of one particular viewpoint, clarity of light, lo ts of clouds and sky, and a long horizontal format to convey a more reflective and sublime image. Land of the Lotus Eaters is an escapist landscape. A crisis of spirit is deceptively rendered in a sentimental vision. The South had seceded from the Republic in 1860, and a political/ economic crisis loomed over the immediate horizon. Duncanson's seductive inhabitants are dark skinned, and the men drugged by lotus, languishing in a tropical civilization) landscape, represent the African American slave and the indolence of the South. The iconolo gy of this painting transforms the meaning of Tennyson's poem. Its poignancy is heightened when it is interpreted within the context of American political history and the social history of the artist's own race and culture.  Other landscapes by Duncanson were concerned with black social conditions in antebellum and reconstruction America. Works dated before 1865 hold a doublecoded meaning, one for whites, another for blacks, which revises the old formulaic comprehension of the 'magisterial gaze' (as an evolutionary movement from wilderness to civilization to one about Slavery and emancipation. The tale of the slave George Washington McQuerry, who escaped in 1849 and Duncanson eventually settled in a small community in Miami County, Ohio, was well known among blacks in that region. Therefore Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River could be understood as not just a bucolic fishing scene, but a tribute to black life and freedom. Fleeing the United States during the Civil War (often sponsored by an abolitionist society), Duncanson used fictional protagonists in his literary paintings as the key with which viewers could unlock social comment on freedom and bondage, and moral decline. The very escapism embodied in landscape painting inevitably levelled a critique at the abusive social order that produced the need for such escape. American Landscape paintings Landscape painting dominated American art world 1830 until 1899, even though it was popular in the 18th century in Europe It was used for moral imperatives, spiritual inspiration, and didactic messages. Ideals of romanticism from Ralph Waldo Emerson, futurism, and looking towards a New World It was there to establish the foundation of American geography and god presence And realism set the standard for what was truly American  Edmonia Lewis 1845 - 1911 She was the first African American sculptor to achieve national and international critical recognition. Unlike her colleagues who focused on landscapes, her subject matter focused on African Americans and American Indians She struggled financially throughout her career, probably because of her decision to focus solely on depiction of Black and indigenous people She focused on a neoclassic style of sculpture, which is characterized as an artistic movement that returned to the forms, styles, and subjects of the ancient world. Neoclassicism was all about order and reason, and it emphasized heroic virtue, duty, refinement, and dignity. Continued and forever free In 1863 Lewis met and studied under Edmund Brackett (1818-1908), a moderately successful neoclassical portrait sculptor in Boston. In the following year she opened her own studio. At an important Bostonian antislavery event, the Soldiers' Relief Fund Fair, organized by Bannister's wife, Christiana, in 1864, Lewis sold over 100 plaster replicas of the Shaw portrait busts, the profits of which enabled her to travel initially to Florence and then to Rome. The 'white marmorean flock' included the renowne American woman sculptor, Harriet Hosmer (18301908), who greeted Lewis on her arrival, and actress Charlotte S. Cushman (181676): women who dared to be independent and professionally ambitious. Forever Free, titled after the poignant phrase from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, was made in Rome in honour of William Lloyd Garrison (who was the abolitionist who introduced her to the sculptor she trained under). For the first time in AfricanAmerican sculpture, Lewis had tackled the compositional difficulties in sculpting two figures. The composition represents the realization of abolitionism rather than its antebellum aspirations. Naturalism enhances the emotional appeal of the subject, while Christian ideas about salvation and redemption heighten the image's sentimentalism. Normally the narrative represented by ideal sculpture appealed to an educated élite, who knew the literary sources and cultural references. Lewis's work, however, had wider appeal, to an uneducated audience, especially an African American one, who would 'read' the story in the context of their own experiences, as well as to the educated élite who would understand the story in the context of abolitionist and classical literature. Whites and blacks, educated and uneducated, could appreciate this work. Forever Free is iconographically complex. The kneeling female slave may be taken in Lewis's work to stand not only for nineteenth century American ideas and attitudes about black slave women, but about women in general. In midcentury women were expected to conform to what has come to be known as the 'cult of true womanhood', meaning to be modest, feminine and domestic. In books, magazines, speeches, and sermons, women were reminded that their place was at home, as guardians of culture and hearth. Images of slave women, especially sculptures, usually depicted the woman naked (except for a discreetly placed cloth), and, if a black slave, conveyed a story about her vulnerability to sexual exploitation, being unprotected by the black man. As the literature and correspondence show, this was a central issue among white women abolitionists, to argue more from a gender perspective about the plight of black people. Furthermore, the piece echoes sentiments expressed in the mass media about proper gender roles in American society. Black abolitionist newspaper articles called for black women and men to assume the same gender conventions as white Americans. For black men's ability to support and protect their women became synonymous with manhood, and that in turn denoted freedom. Coincidentally, Reverend Grimes was active in reuniting black families who were separated as a result of slavery. White women used it not only to promote abolitionism but for their own feminist agenda. The female slave, like the white model of 'true womanhood', was viewed as property under the control of men; in other words the black female kneeling slave was for whites a metaphor for their nonliberated condition. The Death of Cleopatra 1876 Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859 -1937 Life Tanner spent most of his professional life in France, painting portraits, genre, landscapes, and religious subjects. He received enthusiastic recognition in his own country and was the first African American artist elected to full membership at the National Academy of Design in 1927. Following the footsteps of Robert Douglass, Jr, Tanner studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was a student there from 1879 to 1885, during which time he took a drawing class taught by the foremost American portrait painter Thomas Eakins (18491916), Photography was an interest of Tanner's ten years later, when he spent a brief period at Clark University in Atlanta (1889) and took photographs of rural North Carolina "In 1893 Tanner's painting Banjo Lesson was exhibited at the James S. Earle Gallery in Philadelphia, where the familial intimacy of the image and the technical skill of the treatment won immediate praise from viewers and critics. The rich blue and blue green colours, the skilful rendering of the figures, and the light emanating from within the painting, create a realistic image and evoke a romantic mood. The black man playing a banjo was a familiar subject in midcentury American genre painting, but Tanner's intimacy provides a subjective interpretation of black life that was unusual.  "The subject was unusual in 1893, for at this time blacks had virtually disappeared from American genre painting, which was focusing on American urban life. In 1894 Tanner left again for France, where he exhibited Banjo Lesson at that year's Paris Salon. The painting aroused little enthusiasm there, as the Parisians considered it 'peculiarly an American painting'. When returning via Italy Tanner learned that he had received a medal from the Paris Salon (1897) for the Resurrection of Lazarus one of his more important religious paintings. Few American artists had been thus honored. Suddenly Tanner was internationally known. Thereafter he devoted himself almost exclusively to biblical themes taken from the gospels of the four evangelists, focusing on miracles, the nativity, crucifixion and resurrection. " There are only about two or three paintings of Black Life created by Tanner. Why would this be important information to have? Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Resurrection of Lazarus (1896 Alaine Locke and Criticism Locke was one of the Black community who believed Tanner was a disappointment He says, "There have been notably successful Negro artists, but no development of a school of Negro art. Our Negro American painter of outstanding success is Henry O. Tanner. His career is a case in point. [He] has never maturely touched the portrayal of the Negro subject. Who can be certain what field the next Negro artists of note will command, or whether he will not be a landscapist or a master of still life or of purely decorative painting? But from the point of view of our artistic talent in bulk— it is a different matter. We ought to and must have a school of Negro art, a local and racially representative tradition. And that we have not, explains why the generation of Negro artists succeeding Mr Tanner had only the inspiration of his greatness to fire their ambitions, but not the guidance of a distinctive tradition to focus and direct their talents." Was Locke too harsh? And are you Lewis or Tanner? Locke inspired a conversation and set a new standard of ideals. One that set the precedent creating a "school of negro art" and stressed the importance of black people SEEING themselves in art. Not conforming, not pertaining to, but simply creating what being African American looks like in visual art and representation. Joshua Johnston 1765 - 1830 He was the first known African American painter to gain recognitio n as an artist. Johnston was a Baltimore, Maryland based artist working around the time of the country's new independence He only has 3 known paintings of Black subjects, one of them being his own self portrait He was mostly hired on commision to paint portraits of the children of wealthy local families There are 13 paintings that have been identified as his work., His identity as a Black artist was discovered until the 2nd half of the 20th century as he was white passing Edward Mitchell Bannister 1826 - 1901 Bannister In 1850 he settled in Boston, Massachusetts, an important abolitionist city, which, with the third largest free black population in the Northeast, provided economic, artistic and social opportunities for a successful career as an artist and political activist. Assisted by his wife, and with support from middleclass black abolitionists, began his career as a portrait, landscape and seascape painter. He proved to be a moderately successful portrait painter of African Americans, and also, to judge by the advertisements of his skills that he placed in the Liberator in the 1850s and in 1863 and 1866, not only a painter but a portrait photographer. His experience as a photographer and his painterly technique are both evident in the ignified portrait, Newspaper Boy which Bannister completed just before moving to Providence, Rhode Island in October 1869. "A middleclass young man stands midpoint between pose and gesture, with a serious expression. Bannister has captured the moment with abbreviated, visible strokes of paint and muted colour tones. Newspaper Boy provides a singular glimpse into the industrious urban life of the African American middleclass.