Dubuque Museum of Art African American Art Harlem Renaissance

"African American Fine art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Across" presents a selection of works past 43 black artists who lived through the tremendous changes of the 20th century. In paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs, the featured artists cover themes both universal and specific to the African American experience, including the exploration of identity, the struggle for equality, the power of music and the beauties and hardships of life in rural and urban America.

"African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Ceremonious Rights Era and Beyond" was on view at the Smithsonian American Fine art Museum from April 27 through Sept. three, 2013. The exhibition was organized by Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator of painting and sculpture at the museum. It will travel to additional venues through 2014 following its presentation in Washington, D.C.

"This exhibition allows usa to understand profound change through the eyes of artists," said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "These works past African American artists are vital to understanding the circuitous American feel."

The 100 works on view are drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's rich collection of African American fine art, the largest and finest in the United States. More than half of the works featured are being exhibited past the museum for the first fourth dimension, including paintings by Benny Andrews, Loïs Mailou Jones and Jacob Lawrence, equally well as photographs past Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks and Marilyn Nance. Ten of the artworks were acquired within the by five years. More than half of the objects in the exhibition are photographs from the museum'south permanent collection. Private object labels connect the artworks with the creative and social factors that shaped their cosmos.

The 20th century was a time of peachy change in America. Many of the social, political and cultural movements that came to define the era, such as the jazz age, the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights motion, were rooted in African American communities. Black artists explored their identity in this quickly changing world through a diverseness of media and in styles as varied as postmodernism, documentary realism, expressionism and abstraction.

"Visitors volition exist struck not only past the ability of these artworks, but also by the variety of the pieces on display," said Mecklenburg. "So many new movements and styles grew out of the tumult of the 20th century, and these works reflect that diversity."

In paintings, prints and sculpture, artists such every bit William H. Johnson and Andrews speak to the nobility and resilience of those who piece of work the country. Romare Bearden recasts Christian themes in terms of the black experience. Jones, Sargent Johnson and Melvin Edwards address African heritage, while Alma Thomas explores the beauty of the natural world through color and abstract forms.

Studio portraits by James VanDerZee document the rise of the black eye class in the 1920s, while powerful black-and-white photographs past DeCarava, Nance, Parks, Robert McNeill, Roland Freeman and Tony Gleaton chronicle everyday life from the 1930s through the concluding decades of the 20th century.

"Each of the artists included in this exhibition made a compelling contribution to the artistic mural of 20th century America, and nosotros are delighted to feature their work in the museum'due south galleries," said Mecklenburg.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalog, with an essay written past distinguished scholar Richard J. Powell, the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke Academy. The book too includes entries about each artist by Mecklenburg; Theresa Slowik, chief of publications at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Battle. The catalog was co-published by the museum with Skira Rizzoli in New York.

National Tour

The exhibition will travel through 2014 to additional cities in the U.s. following its presentation in Washington, D.C. Confirmed venues include

Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. (Sept. 28 – Jan. 6, 2013)

Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Fla. (Feb. 1, 2013 – April 28, 2013)

Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. (June 1, 2013 – Sept. ii, 2013)

the Hunter Museum of American Fine art in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Feb. 14, 2014 – May 25, 2014)

and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Calif. (June 28, 2014 – Sept. 21, 2014).

Too see: African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Workss included in the exhibition:

ane. Benny Andrews, Portrait of Black Madonna, 1987 , oil and collage on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Andrews Humphrey Family Foundation, © Manor of Benny Andrews/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

2. John Biggers, Shotgun, Tertiary Ward #ane, 1966, tempera and oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase fabricated possible by Anacostia Museum, Smithsonian Institution

iii. Frederick Chocolate-brown, John Henry, 1979, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Souvenir of Gerald Fifty. Pearson, © 1979 Frederick J. Brown

4. Allan Rohan Crite, School'southward Out, 1936, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from The Museum of Modern Art

5. Roy DeCarava, Lingerie, New York, 1950/printed 1981, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Fine art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore, © 1981 Roy DeCarava

6. Beauford Delaney, Can Fire in the Park, 1946, Smithsonian American Art Museum

7. Thornton Punch, Sr., Height of the Line (Steel), 1992, mixed media: enamel, unbraided canvas roping, and metallic, Smithsonian American Fine art Museum, Gift from the collection of Ron and June Shelp

8. Melvin Edwards, Tambo, 1993, welded steel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita Fifty. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Establishment Collections Conquering Program © 1993 Melvin Edwards

9. Roland 50. Freeman, Dancing at Jazz Alley. Chicago, Illinois, June 1974, from the series, Southern Roads/ City Pavements, 1974/ Printed 1982, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George H. Dalsheimer, © 1974 Roland L. Freeman

10. Sam Gilliam, The Petition, 1990, mixed media, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Souvenir of the James F. Dicke Family unit, © 1990 Sam Gilliam

11. Felrath Hines, Red Stripe with Light-green Background, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum © 1986 Dorothy C Fisher

12. Earlie Hudnall, Jr., Hip Hop, 1993, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum © 1993 Earlie Hudnall, Jr.

13. Richard Chase, "The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the dubiety whether ane may not be going to prove ane's cocky a fool; the truest heroism, is to resist the dubiety; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it out to be resisted, and when to be obeyed." -Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, 1852. From the series Groovy Ideas,1975, chromed and welded steel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America

14. Malvin Greyness Johnson, Self-Portrait, 1934, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Souvenir of the Harmon Foundation

15. Sargent Johnson, Mask, 1930-1935, copper on forest base, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of International Business organization Machines Corporation

16. William H. Johnson, Sowing, 1940, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation

17. Loïs Mailou Jones, Moon Masque, 1971, oil and collage, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Heritance of the artist

18. Jacob Lawrence, Bar and Grill, 1941, gouache, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National University of Design

19. Norman Lewis, Evening Rendezvous, 1962, oil, Smithsonian American Fine art Museum, Museum purchase

20. Robert McNeill, New Car (South Richmond, Virginia), from the project The Negro in Virginia, 1938, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, © 1938 Robert McNeill

21. Robert McNeill, Brand A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York), 1938, gelatin silvery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, © 1938 Robert McNeill

22. Keith Morrison, Zombie Jamboree, 1988, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund and the Director's Discretionary Fund

23. Marilyn Nance, Baptism, 1986, gelatin silver print, Smitsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase fabricated possible past the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Establishment Collections Acquisition Program, © 1986 Marilyn Nance

24. Gordon Parks, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950, gelatin argent impress, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum buy through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, © 1950 Gordon Parks

25. James A. Porter, Still Life with Peonies, 1949, oil, Smithsonian American Fine art Museum, Museum purchase through Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program

26. John Scott, Thornbush Dejection Totem, 1990, painted steel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase

27. Charles Searles, Celebration, 1975, acrylic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, Art-in-Architecture Program

28. Renée Stout, The Colonel's Cabinet, 1991-1994, mixed media: rug, chair, painting, and cabinet with found and handmade objects, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, © 1994 Renée Stout

29. Alma Thomas, Light Blue Nursery, 1968, acrylic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Creative person

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