African American Art Timeline

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was fond of art from a young age. Basquiat ran away from home after his parents' divorce left him with an abusive father. His artistic beginnings lie in the New York graffiti movement of the 1970s. While homeless, he survived "by panhandling, dealing drugs, and peddling hand-painted postcards and T-shirts" (Jean). His art gave rise to the Punk Art and Neo-Expressionism art movements (Jean).

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta (1983), image courtesy of The Huffington Post.

The Heidelberg Project

Started by Detroit artist Tyree Guyton in 1986, The Heidelberg Project is an installation on Heidelberg street in Detroit, featuring the neighborhood's vacant lots and houses. Guyton started the project after returning to his childhood home and finding that it had been overrun with blight. He was inspired "to pick up a paintbrush instead of a weapon" by his grandfather after losing three brothers (History).

Tyree Guyton and his grandfather (1989), image courtesy of heidelberg.org.

Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey choreographed his most influential work, Revelations, in the year 1960 (Explore). He founded his dance company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, in 1958 after choreographing work with Lester Horton's dance company following Horton's death in 1953. He was dedicated to making dance work surrounding his cultural heritage as a black man who grew up in the southern United States (Alvin).

The Birth of Hip Hop

On August 11th, 1973, hip hop was created in the West Bronx area of New York City by Clive Campbell, more commonly known as DJ Kool Herc. By extending the "break" part of a musical track through the use of two records, Campbell helped create a whole culture of dancing, music, poetry, fashion, and visual art that would stay with Americans for good. Though it started out as more of a happy genre, it soon became political in the 1980s after many black artists grew tired of racist government policies and turned to the budding art form to let their voices be heard (Forquet).

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. According to the Poetry Foundation, she has "also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young black militant writers of the 1960s" (Gwendolyn). She took a more political stance with her work later in life after a gathering of black writers at Fisk University in 1967. She eventually left her major publisher in order to support smaller, black-owned publishers in the 1970s (Gwendolyn).

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong could easily be considered one of the most influential jazz musicians in American history. Around 1912, at the age of eleven, he began playing music on street corners with a toy instrument. When sent to the New Orleans Colored Waif's Home for Boys following an arrest in 1913, he was mentored by Peter Davis, the home's music teacher. In the 1920s, his conception of the long solo revolutionized the world of jazz, which had been previously been dominated by big band music and smaller ensembles with shorter solos. He maintained fame throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and formed Louis Armstrong and His All Stars in the 1940s (About).

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic movement that took place during the 1920s and 1930s which gave many black artists the chance to have their voice heard. The movement was composed of visual and literary arts, and although jazz music was forming as a black art form at the same time, it was not included in the movement. At the center of the movement were writers such as Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. This movement was critical in diversifying American literature. Unfortunately, however, after the movement began to fade it was ignored until the civil rights movement (History.com).

Langston Hughes

As mentioned in the previous slide, Langston Hughes was one of the fundamental writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Having lived in six cities in the United States as a young child, he was able to accurately portay the experiences of a black person in early 1900s America. By the time he published his first book, he had travelled to many countries around the world, including West Africa, France, and Mexico. According to the Poetry Foundation, Hughes was "he first black American to earn his living solely from his writing and public lectures". However, Hughes lost popularity late in life due to his opinion that humans should be able to live with and tolerate each other peacefully (Langston).

Loïs Mailou Jones

Loïs Mailou Jones was another active artist from the Harlem Renaissance. She was a successful college professor and colleague of Langston Hughes. During her career, she focused on uplifting African artists and forging cultural connections between Africa and America (Biography).

Loïs Mailou Jones, Ascent of Ethiopia (1932), image courtesy of loismailoujones.com

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Meta Warrick Fuller was born to and raised in an affluent African American family. From an early age, her artistic tendencies were nourished by her family, and after earning a scholarship, she attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of the Industrial Arts, where she graduated honors. Afterward, she studied art in Paris, and upon returning to America, she centered in her art her African American identity (Jones).

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, The Awakening of Ethiopia (1921), image courtesy of Moore College of Art and Design.

James Van Der Zee

At the beginning of his life in the late 1800s, James Van Der Zee wanted to be a professional violinist. However, when he received a camera at the age of 14, he found that he was gifted in the area of photography as well. He later moved to New York and participated in the Harlem Renaissance (James).

James Van Der Zee, Lady with Wide-Brimmed Straw Hat (1934), image courtesy of the Howard Greenberg Gallery.

Edmonia Lewis

It is estimated that Edmonia Lewis, the "first nationally recognized African American sculptor" was born around 1845, although there is no precise date of birth on record for her. When her parents died, her brother took it upon himself to make sure she got the education she needed. She is known for her sculpture Death of Cleopatra which was lost for several years before being found in 1985 and put into the National Museum of American Art (African).

Edmonia Lewis, Death of Cleopatria (1876), image courtesy of Oxford University Press.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar, born in 1872, wrote based off his parent's stories of being slaves on a plantation. He was a successful poet from a very young age, having been published for the first time at the age of fourteen. Although he was unable to attend college due to a lack of financial resources, he still managed to cultivate a successful writing career, having published a collection named Oak and Ivy and selling copies to people riding the elevator he operated. After moving to Chicago and working at the first World's Fair with the help of Frederick Douglass, his poetic work took off. He was published in a number of major publications by the year 1895, and produced a second collection of poetry that same year. Before dying eleven years later, Dunbar published several collections and novels (Paul).

The Origins of Blues Music

Blues music emerged in the Mississippi Delta after the Civil War from "African-American sharecroppers who sang as they toiled in the cotton and vegetable fields" (Kopp). Sharecroppers were ex-slaves or the descendents of slaves who had to work on the fields of former slave owners for a very low share of pay. No exact year of origin is known for this genre of music, but it is speculated to have started around the late 1800s, possibly in the 1890s. Blues music spread throughout the country in the early 1900s and eventually became divided into different sub-genres, Delta blues, Chicago blues, and country blues (Yafai).

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson

Renowned tap dancer Bill Robinson was born in 1878. Growing up, he danced for money on the side of the road before he ran away to Washington D.C. at the age of eight. There, he watched minstrel shows and taught himself how to tap dance by mimicking the performer's movements. He debuted as a professional dancer in a minstrel show in 1892. Later on, he became a vaudeville performer with the help of his agent, Marty Forkins. He later performed in many films alongside Shirley Temple, and his last gig was the movie "Stormy Weather" in 1943.

Scipio Moorhead

This artist and poet, who was most famous in the year 1773, has been referred to as "the earliest significant black fine artist". Very little is known about him, other than the fact that he was a slave who belonged to Reverend John Moorhead, whose wife taught him how to make art. His only surviving work, pictured on the right, is a portrait of Phillis Wheatley, the first black person to publish a poetry collection (African).

Scipio Moorhead, Philis Wheatley (1773), reproduced engraving by Anonymous, image courtesy of Oxford University Press.

Phillis Wheatley

As mentioned in the previous slide, Phillis Wheatley was the first black person to publish a collection of poetry (African). Wheatley was born and lived in West Africa until she was seized at the age of seven and taken to Boston, Massachusetts. She published her first poem, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin", at the age of thirteen. The poem that brought her fame, however, was an elegy for Reverend George Whitefield. During her career, Wheatley "applied biblical symbolism to evangelize and to comment on slavery" (Phillis). It is estimated that the poet wrote 145 poems throughout the course of her life (Phillis).

Joshua Johnson

According to Oxford University Press, Joshua Johnson was "the best-known African American artist of the early republic". He was born into slavery, but was freed in 1796, shortly after he began his career as an artist. His early career was mostly spent on creating portraits for upper-class white individuals, such as Isabella Taylor, whose portrait is included on the right (African).

Joshua Johnson, Portrait of Isabella Taylor (c. 1805), image courtesy of Oxford University Press.

Robert Scott Duncanson

According to a biography found on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's website, Robert Scott Duncanson was proclaimed by newspapers in America as the "'best landscape painter in the West'". The struggle for civil rights during the time of Duncanson's life gave many African Americans the chance to create art (African). One of the most influential landscape painters of all time, Duncanson's work also provided subtle commentary on the American political climate at the time (Robert).

Robert Scott Duncanson, Landscape with a Lake (1864), image courtesy of Oxford University Press.