Olmecs

Introduction

When I look at the early identification of African-Americans involved in the Visual Arts, I see a small cadre of artists closely aligned to the production of works in the strict tradition of European or English classicism. The rules were clearly defined for the artists, and cultural expression was not the acceptable standard for visual creations produced by early African-American artists. Those few African-Americans had to sublimate their expression and stick closely to what was defined as art. Therefore, it was not a surprise to see the first African-American artists defined as slave artisans with skills as iron workers, cabinet makers, quiltmakers, even silversmiths and stoneware vessel makers. The majority of these artists were using their Afrocentric talents for creating useful items needed by their masters or for their own households when allowed. The African-Americans' talents as visual artists were later identified as painters of white families' portraits and, in rare cases, portrait painters of well to do "free persons of color." (Chambers 70).

These early American African-American artists enjoyed a degree of status, and many bought their freedom using their artistic talents as acceptable barter. Having a marketable and acceptable skill pleased the white clientele and provided a living for the early African-American visual artists.

Scipio Moorhead of Boston, G.W. HOBBS of Baltimore, Joshua Johnston of Baltimore, Julien Hudson of New Orleans, Robert M. Douglass JR. of Philadelphia, Patrick Henry Reason of Philadelphia, and William Simpson of Boston were among the early identifiable portraitists of prominent black and white subjects from 1773 until 1887.

Being a visual artist required talent, but, for the African-American artists, talent was not enough. This was nineteenth century America and race determined who could be trained in the arts. There were no special schools or places where African-Americans could freely exhibit their talents for art. These talented artists were excluded from the academies, associations, and teaching institutions available to white artists. In rare cases, beneficent white families broke the rules and provided knowledge, direction, and resources to budding African-American talents in the visual arts. Many of these white patrons were among the abolitionists of this period in American history.

After the Civil War, a host of African-American visual artists started to be recognized. From 1865 to the start of the 1920's, most of these artists produced works, which could be acceptable to museums, patrons, or local salons or studios. They therefore created paintings, drawings, and sculptures in the classical and romantic traditions of scenes depicting nature, history, familiar places, distinguished personalities, and prominent families of wealth. The art world of this period was narrow, and African-American artists had to compete for recognition and earnings from pieces of art requested by their commissioners or patrons. Therefore, African-American artists such as Edward Mitchell Bannister, Grafton Tyler Brown, Nelson A. Primus, Edmonia Lewis, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller had to produce pieces of art appealing to the judges of that art. For the most part, these African-Americans were seeking recognition and a place in the international world of art. Certain American cities began to produce recognizable talents. Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Providence, New York, Hartford, and New Orleans were among the growing places where African-Americans could receive training -- but within the limits of what was acceptable as worthy of distinction in a market dominated by European influences.

Most African-American artists could not afford to release their creative energy in the direction of purely social protest art or expressive impressionistic moods in art. African-American artists seeking this freedom of expression later discovered that Rome, Munich, and especially Paris were places where they could find new vistas of respect as just artists, who happen to be African-Americans.

This paper will be concerned with how images in the visual arts reflected the issues associated with the Old Negro/New Negro controversy during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. The concept of the "New Negro" was related to growing demands for equality and civil rights among African Americans. At the same time, the concept was based on a rejection of earlier stereotypical views of African Americans (i.e., the "Old Negro" stereotype). Many of the artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance movement identified themselves with the cause of the New Negro. According to the historian Jervis Anderson, the work of these writers and artists "could be said to represent in art what the race militants had represented in politics - not an appeal to compassion and social redress but a bold assertion of self" (Chambers 86).

The non-fiction writer Alain Locke defined the "Old Negro" and the "New Negro"; a professor at Howard University, in his essay entitled "The New Negro." Locke claimed that the Old Negro was "more of a myth than a man" - a "stock figure perpetuated as an historical fiction partly in innocent sentimentalism, partly in deliberate reactionism" (Locke 47). Furthermore, Locke argued that "the Negro himself has contributed his share to this through a sort of protective social mimicry forced upon him by the adverse circumstances of dependence" (47). As a result of this way of thinking, African Americans were being kept in a state of oppression. However, as Locke also noted, there was a New Negro emerging in American society; this new type of African American sought greater self-reliance and opportunities for creative self-expression. Thus, as Locke wrote, the African American "now becomes a conscious contributor and lays aside the status of a beneficiary and ward for that of a collaborator and participant in American civilization" (50).

The Harlem Renaissance writers and artists who associated themselves with the New Negro were especially concerned with showing the "truth" of the African American experience, as opposed to the stereotypical views that had existed in the past. In her book The Harlem Renaissance, Veronica Chambers says that the artists and intellectuals of the New Negro movement were "dedicated to expressing the spirit, the hard work, the joys, and the sorrows of thousands of black Americans living in a society that largely rejected their contributions" (107). The novelist Jessie Redmon Fauset was among those who argued for the importance of African Americans expressing the truth about their own lives. As Fauset claimed: "Let