Aaron Douglass Aspiration Analysis

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Aaron Douglas was an African-American painter and illustrator who played a prominent role during the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that had emerged in the early 20th century where many African-Americans were striving for equality. Of the many different paintings at the De Young Museum, Aspiration (1936) seemed to be the one artwork that had caught my attention. This painting, Aspiration, is one of two extant paintings from a four-part mural that Douglas had created and represents the path from slavery to freedom that the African-Americans took. Aspiration is an oil on canvas painting. The first thing that I have noticed in this painting would have to be the color. Throughout the entire painting, Douglas used the same colors over and over again, the only difference was that it was variety of different shades of purples, blues, and yellows. None of these colors were very vibrant or stand out on its own, there was a lack in the pop of colors within this painting and all of …show more content…

I found that the message Douglas was trying to convey behind the painting to be very powerful and fascinating. He did an amazing job at showcasing the difficult path on how the majority of the African-Americans had trouble going through. Each part of the painting indicates each step of their journey and told a different story in their lives that they had faced and by using the three individual African-Americans in the painting, it represents how the people who went from being enslaved in shackles into people who overcame the many obstacles that they had to face and is currently trying to pursue their dreams. This message made me reflect on the amount of pain and suffering they had to go through and how many of them struggled to get to where they are today. It also made me intrigued to learn more about the Harlem Renaissance in

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