A Return to the Harlem Renaissance

Within the palatial walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art sits The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, featuring a variety of prominent artists from the Harlem Renaissance movement. Unveiled by the museum on February 25, 2024, the exhibition seeks to reestablish the beauty and importance of this influential, empowering era.

The Harlem Renaissance dates back to the early twentieth century in New York City. As a result of World War I, the Great Migration marked an increasing number of African Americans in northern American cities. Their growing sense of racial pride led to the birth of the Harlem Renaissance: a cultural period flourishing with art, music, literature, and theatrical performances.

The visual arts of the period were composed of spectacular colors and distinct styles of painting, ranging from realism to abstraction. Situated near the exhibit’s entrance is a section of paintings depicting the urban lives of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance era: playing billiards and card games, picnicking, and spending quality time together. The works evoke a sense of a tight-knit community partaking in leisurely activities and pleasures. Painter Archibald J. Motley’s oil painting Picnic (1934) depicts a lively scene of acquaintances and loved ones gathering for a meal outdoors. The women wear bright-colored dresses, and the men don suits and ties with fedoras on their heads. Many are smiling, some with arms around one another. A man towards the back plays the banjo, an instrument originating from enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. This overall piece highlights the excitement and high spirits that came to be associated with the Harlem Renaissance’s culture. Similarly, the exhibit depicts the liveliness of African American nightlife with works such as Motley’s Black Belt (1934) and Nightlife (1943), which feature bustling streets and exuberant clubs, respectively. Paintings that constituted this section utilize vivid colors and animated expressions to convey the exhilarating energy of each scene.

The exhibit’s centerpiece is William H. Johnson’s oil painting on plywood Street Life, Harlem (ca. 1939–40). The painting takes on an avant-garde approach for the time, depicting the sophisticated mannerism of African Americans. The painting centers on an African American couple. Both are dressed in formal attire, seemingly ready to spend the night out at a bar or club. Johnson’s style in depicting the couple resembles that of traditional African masks, which are generally characterized by their bold and flat features. He pays homage to their unique attributes and redefines the unconventional beauty of the masks with a newfound sense of appreciation.

Another section of the exhibition is dedicated to an assortment of portraits, where viewers are exposed to the juxtaposition of loud, modernist colors with realistic, soft lighting. For example, William H. Johnson’s Woman in Blue (1943) is intentionally displayed next to Motley’s Portrait of Edna Powell Gayle (1948). Each painting displays a middle-class African American woman wearing a solid-colored, cool-toned dress. Johnson takes a two-dimensional approach, incorporating complementary colors lemon yellow and ultramarine blue. His painting combines the influences of Fauvism, a European movement characterized by vibrant hues and eccentric spontaneity, and the aesthetics of African masks. Motley’s portrait, on the other hand, is three-dimensional, with mellow shades of violet that present the woman as formal and honest. Despite the contrast between the two styles, both portraits highlight how art style does not affect the meaningful, elevated portrayal of African Americans.

The Harlem Renaissance also had an impact outside the United States, as shown by the handful of works by European artists inspired by the movement. The exhibit features Henri Matisse’s Aïcha and Laurette (1917), which broke the stereotypical representation of Black women found in typical European portrayals. Prior, Black women were presented as subordinate servants to higher-up White women. Matisse discards this typicality, illustrating a Black and White woman together as equals. The White woman has her right arm around her Black peer, demonstrating their close friendship and presenting an equal power dynamic. Matisse’s painting represented the coming of a new age that challenged former conventions to empower African Americans.

The overall impact of the Harlem Renaissance on the United States and the world is highlighted toward the end of the exhibition, where the art seeps into activism. Ranging from magazine covers to sculptures, African Americans utilized the power of creativity to push forward in establishing equality. Photographs by James Van Der Zee and other anonymous artists captured mass demonstrations, such as the 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade (1917), which depicted the Fifth Avenue march directed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) against lynchings, murder, and other social injustices. The exhibition does not fail to remind viewers of the larger implications behind the Harlem Renaissance: to promote Black people not as subservient, but as a diverse group with an intricate culture.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time when African American art and culture flourished, bringing pride and resilience to Black communities in America. The exhibition concludes with Romare Bearden’s The Block (1971), composed of six collages merged to create a large image stretching across the wall. Each part of the collage is filled with cut-outs of figures and patterns, coming together to form an extensive street in Harlem buzzing with activity. This piece shows the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance just decades later. The different activities connected along one strip tell the story of African Americans in the Harlem Renaissance as they established a thriving, united community for themselves. Ultimately, the Harlem Renaissance was only a foundation for the greater appreciation and integration of Black art and culture in American society today.