Artists of various forms also emerged during this time period. Many used sculptures to express their discontent with the issues that surrounded the New Negro Movement. Others chose to paint their African pride through murals or colleges. Regardless of their chosen art medium, these beautiful pieces of artwork expressed the real and true emotions of the struggle for African Americans. Much of this artwork is displayed throughout the country today.
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet
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| (1890-1960) |
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was born in Warwick, Rhode Island in 1890. Her mother was a Narragansett Indian and her father was of mixed African descent. Nancy's desire to study the arts brought nothing but disapproval from both her parents. They thought it was best if a Negro woman became a teacher or nanny. Unfortunately, these were just about the only jobs available to Negro women during this time. But Nancy refused. Even the interjections from other family members could not deter her from saving her money so that she could attend The Rhode Island School of Design. It took her four years, but she would eventually enroll.
During her college years, Nancy's specialty was portraitures. She preferred to capture true and raw expressions of people. She depicted people of all races and did not seem to have a preference. The way that she sculpted her artwork made her sculptures seem to come alive. (Hardy & Hardy, 183) Nancy would soon marry and she graduated from RISD in 1918. She was eager to show her work and found an art gallery in Newport, RI. Unfortunately, the gallery was only willing to show her work as long as she remained behind the scenes. Nancy would not except this and decided to go to New York in hopes of a better outcome. But in New York, she got the same results. The art galleries were willing to show her artwork but not Nancy. Finally she made the decision to travel to Paris where she believed that both she and her art would be accepted.
In 1922, Nancy moved to Paris. Although she suffered some minor setbacks, such as the breakup of her marriage and stints with poverty, Nancy managed to make a name for herself. Many other African Americans who resided in Paris at the time, W.E.B. Du Bois in particular, took keen interest in her work. Her life size sculptures, were often made in marble, and won reviews from many French critics. (Hardy & Hardy, 185)
Ten years after gaining fame in Paris, Nancy moved back to the United States. The Newport Art Gallery was now willing to accept both Nancy and her artwork. She was also awarded first prize at the Twenty First annual Newport Art Association Exhibition with her wood sculpture "Discontent".
With the help of Du Bois, Nancy would eventually have a teaching position at Atlanta University and Spelman College, both in Atlanta, Georgia. She continued to teach until she moved back to Rhode Island in 1944 to take care of her ailing father. Nancy succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 70, in 1960.
Looking at Nancy's work today, it is evident that she often enveloped many of her emotions into her art work. Her sculptures often gave way to the pain and struggle that she felt coming up as an African American of mixed race during this time in history. But it is also apparent that through this pain, she also managed to capture a sense of beauty that still warms the heart today.
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was a painter who not really inspired by The Harlem Renaissance. In fact, the older generation involved with this movement were more inspired by him.
Born in 1917, Lawrence was influential during the dying years of the movement. Raised by a single mother, Jacob moved to Harlem at the age of 13. He was a rather shy boy who liked to explore the city of Harlem when he was not watching his brother and sister. He did not care to hang out with the other neighborhood boys. Nevertheless, his overworked mother often worried about his well being. So she decided to enroll him in the Utopia’s Children House. This school program would become the place where Jacob would start to master his work s an artist.
At the Utopia’s Children House, Jacob tried his hands at any kind of craft that was available. But he always seemed to excel in painting. Charles Alston, another popular painter of the Renaissance, noticed Lawrence’s talent and took him under his wings. He believed in Jacob’s raw talent so much that he often put his own work aside to focus on Jacob.
While attending the after school program, Jacob also found a friend in Charles Seifert. Seifert was a local resident and a self taught historian. He had read just about every material imaginable on African Americans and black history. Charles passed his knowledge onto Jacob who was intrigued by the fact that there were actually black heroes in history. His fascination with history can be seen through many of his works.
Another person who was influential throughout Lawrence’s life was Augusta Salvage. She was known worldwide and encouraged Lawrence to continue painting. She even enrolled him in an art program which enabled Jacob to receive much needed attention for his work.
By 1942, Jacob was well known. His paintings illustrating historic figures such as Toussaint L’Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass were well admired by many. But one of his most famous works today continues to be the 61 picture series of the Migration of a Negro. Jacob Lawrence had a way of using simple dialogue to describe his work. Lawrence managed to depict the story of the African American migration to the North in the early 1900s in such a beautiful way.
When Edith Halpert, a white art gallery owner, took note of Jacob’s work on the migration series. She had to have it on display in her gallery. Jacob Lawrence became the first African American to have their work shown in a major New York art gallery. While working on the migration series, Jacob enlisted the help of Gwendolyn Knight. Knight was a friend that he met while attending one of his many art classes. With their admiration for the art amongst other things, Gwen would eventually become Jacob’s wife.
All the new found fame eventually caught up to Jacob. It overwhelmed him and in 1949 he voluntarily admitted himself into a hospital for depression. He could not understand why he was picked for fame while many of his mentors remained unnoticed. He believed that Charles Alston and Augusta Savage deserved a chance just like he did. The pain that he felt would follow him throughout his career.
Lawrence eventually accepted a teaching job in Seattle. He and Gwen remained in Seattle until his death in 2000. All during his career, Lawrence received numerous awards. Although African Americans sometimes thought that he had assimilated too far into the white culture, Jacob no longer let the kind of thoughts get to him. He remained a simple and humble person to his death. His painting technique of using simply shapes and the simple dialogue that he attached to his painting are still able to capture the hearts of anyone that admires them to this day.
Mary Edmonia Lewis
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| (1845-????) |
Mary was born to a Native American mother and an African American father. Both her parents died when she was young. Along with her brother, she was raised by her mother’s Native American family near Niagara Falls in Canada.
It was hard for Mary to learn English because her native Chippewa language did not have a lot of the letters found in the English language. Eventually Mary got through her schooling and was accepted into Oberlin College in Chicago. There, Mary found her niche in drawing. She took a strong interest in sculpting Greek and Roman sculptures. Throughout her college years, Mary was an outcast and was often belittled by her classmates. Because of the negative views of African Americans during this time, she simply was not allowed to register for her last semester in college; therefore she could not obtain her degree. After failing to graduate from Oberlin, Mary decided to try her luck in Boston.
While in Boston, Mary studied under Edward A. Brackett. She earned her living by selling sculptures of abolitionists. During the 1860’s, Mary traveled to Italy to study the works of famous Italian painters such as Michelangelo and Donatello. While in Rome, her sculptures centered on realism which she used to express the emotions of blacks, whites, and Native Americans. She also mastered the classic style of neoclassism. This form of artwork was a much more serious style. It is hard to express emotions through this form, but Mary managed to capture the emotions through her sculptures. While in Italy, Mary made her money by selling her neoclassical artwork. Unfortunately, she often had to demean herself by creating her artwork on the spot. Many whites did not believe that a woman of color could create such beauty.
Some of Mary’s notable work captured important events in history. One of her most famous sculptures was entitled “Forever Free”. The sculpture depicted an African American man of mixed descent and a Greek goddess in honor of the signing of The Emancipation Proclamation. Although this legal doctrine formally freed the slaves, Mary’s artwork exemplified the fact that race issues were still existent. Mary continued to sculpt during the years. She would often create art that illustrated historical heroines. One of her most noted works was a statue entitled “The Death of Cleopatra”. This statue was shown at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
With her newfound fame, the people that criticized Mary when she was a young aspiring artist were now willing to accept her with open arms. Oberlin College jumped at the chance to note that this was the place that she had started her artistic career. But not everyone in the African American community approved of her artwork. Mary did not take this to heart. Instead, she removed herself from these negative situations and moved back to Italy. Unfortunately the location and time of Mary’s death is unknown
Mary’s death may remain a mystery, but the impact of her works remains apparent. Because of the ridicule and mistrust that was placed upon her by whites, Mary had a hard time accepting help from them. During her career, she turned down many white critics who could have been able to take her artwork to another level. But the depiction of the struggle that both her African American and Native American people felt was unmistaken in much of her art. Mary Edmonia Lewis was not a full fledge voice during the Harlem Renaissance but her work as an African American women leading up to that time period made way for future aspiring artists of the Renaissance.
