Essay On Aaron Douglass

687 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racism during the Harlem Renaissance

The Blues Aesthetic is not simply just a music genre, it is much more. The Blues Aesthetic is a genre of music that comes particularly from African-Americans. The Blues Aesthetic was originated from the southern parts of the United States and eventually grew very popular among all types of people. The Blues Aesthetic started in the south because of the hardships African-Americans had to face at the time; the Blues Aesthetic was a pain reliever for all the pain. The Blues Aesthetic also gave African-Americans a cultural identity. Although the Blues Aesthetic is more referred to as music and poetry, the Blues Aesthetic can be referred to any type of African-American art or African American inspired art, whether is be paintings, drawings, cookings, …show more content…

Aaron Douglas was born on May 26, 1898 in Topeka, Kansas. Aaron Douglas was born into a laboring family. Aaron Douglas grew up in a time period where racism was very vibrant. Growing up, Aaron Douglas witnessed all of the irony of racial injustices being justified by many court rulings, such as the Senate beating the anti-lynching legislation. Aaron Douglas grew up with many of these injustices; yet, instead of becoming discouraged as the injustices become worse, he uses his struggles to make a change in the world and give African-Americans a voice. Aaron Douglas made a change in the world and gave his fellow African-Americans a voice by illustrating them through modern-art That is one of the main reasons that Aaron Douglas is relevant to the Blues Aesthetic; Aaron Douglas painted and illustrated his art work of racial themes for the world to see in order for Douglas to pursue justice. At the time, the Harlem Renaissance was occurring in New York. Aaron Douglas was inspired by the people who were artist. Types of art that were popular during the Harlem Renaissance was the musical art of the blues. The blues, along with many other forms of art, was believed to be the bridge between African-Americans and white people; art was believed to be a language that African-Americans and white people could communicate in. Aaron Douglas communicated to the world through his African-inspired visual paintings and he made a statement. Aaron Douglas took “his blues” and helped changed the

Show More
Related

  • Benny Andrews

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    Andrews wanted to express black experience through his art, but he found it very difficult thing to do. He was using nonfigurative expressionism which became a personal movement for him. Andrews wanted to convey himself in a different way from other artists in order to make his own exclusive personality. I think his works are delicate, and cherished. He is a visual artist, writer, and teacher.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Blame It On The Blues By Angela Davis

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blues music emerged as an African American music genre derived from spiritual and work songs at the end of the 19th century and became increasingly popular across cultures in America. The Blues is the parent to modern day genre’s like jazz, rhythm and blue and even rock and roll, it uses a call-and-response pattern. While Blues songs frequently expressed individual emotions and problems, such as lost love, they were also used to express despair at social injustice. Even though Blues singing was started by men, it became increasing popular among women, creating one of the first feminist movements. Ma Rainey, a pioneer in women’s

    Read More

  • Impact of Music of the Harlem Renaissance Upon the Artists of Today

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    All of the musicians, writers, and artists shared a common purpose. This purpose was to create art that reflected the Afro American community. Through this era, African Americans provided themselves with their cultural roots and a promise for a better future. Music in this era was the beginning. It was the beginning of a new life for musicians and African Americans.

    Read More

  • Synopsis Of The Film 'The Land Where The Blues Began'

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    The title of this video is “The Land Where the Blues Began” and it is a documentary that was produced by The Mississippi Authority for Educational Television & Alan Lomax. The sometimes visible narrator is none other than Alan Lomax, a renowned ethnomusicologist and collector, as well as the son of John Lomax. The overarching theme in this documentary centers on exploring the roots of the blues. In the introduction of the documentary Alan Lomax talks about how blues belongs to everyone presently and has even created more recent genres such as jazz and rock n’ roll. In saying this Alan Lomax fears that the origin of blues has been forgotten. Throughout the video we are introduced to blues musicians who were whiteness the phenomena

    Read More

  • Aaron Douglas, The New Negro Movements

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    to the art today. Aaron Douglas was one of those inspiring artists. "Aaron Douglas was an

    Read More

  • What Role Does Blues Play In Today's Music

    1711 Words  | 4 Pages

    Blues has played an extreme role in todays’ music. The music genre of blues, helps us express ourselves in which you can feel it from the ubiquitous in the jazz to the blues scale and the specific chord progressions. To start off, the blues is musically originated by African Americans in the deep South of the United States. Growing up in a southern household, I was used to listening to a variety music, but blues was always most listened to. Every time I listen to blues, the lyrics often deal with personal adversity, and it goes far beyond pity.

    Read More

  • Sara Smolinsky and Cultural Pluralism in Jewish-American Culture

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    George Schuyler’s article “The Negro Art Hokum” argues that the notion of African-American culture as separate from national American culture is nonsense. To Schuyler, all seemingly distinct elements of African-American culture and artistic endeavors from such are influenced by the dominant white American culture, and therefore, only American. The merit of Schuyler’s argument stems from the fact that it is practically impossible for one culture to exist within the confines of another without absorbing certain characteristics. The problem with Schuyler’s argument that Langston Hughes notes in his response article, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” is that it assumes complete assimilation of African-Americans by a singular national culture. Fundamental to Hughes’ rebuttal is the allowance of a unique African-American culture extant of the standards of a singular American cultural identity. For Hughes, this unique culture lies within the working-class, out of sight of the American national culture. This culture, while neither completely African nor American, maintains the vibrant and unique roots of the African-American experience. Schuyler advocates cultural assimilation, while Hughes promotes cultural pluralism, in which minority cultures maintain their distinctive qualities in the face of a dominant national identity.

    Read More

  • Rock n Roll & 20th Century Culture

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Albert Murray, the African-American musical tradition is “fundamentally stoical yet affirmative in spirit” (Star 3). Through the medium of the blues, African-Americans expressed a resilience of spirit which refused to be crippled by either poverty or racism. It is through music that the energies and dexterities of black American life are sounded and expressed (39). For the black culture in this country, the music of Basie or Ellington expressed a “wideawake, forward-tending” rhythm that one can not only dance to but live by (Star 39).

    Read More

  • Similarities of hip-hop and the blues

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    For Stanley, the blues tell the stories of the African-American community. Some of the stories talk about the harshness of their lives, but they also talk about the good times they had. [People] play the blues to get rid of the blues not to get them." (Lamb, 1). When people play or even listen to the blues, they are letting all of their worries go. They are not worrying about their job, the bills, or their kids. They are just trying to enjoy the moment when the blues are playing. The blues are some people's release from the stresses of their lives.

    Read More

  • Ma Rainey's Prove It On Me Blues

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    Black art forms have historically always been an avenue for the voice; from spirituals to work songs to ballads, pieces of literature are one way that the black community has consistently been able to express their opinions and communicate to society at large. One was this has been achieved is through civil disobedience meeting civil manners. In this case, it would be just acknowledging an issue through art and literature. On the other hand, there is art with a direct purpose - literature meant to spur action; to convey anger and shock; or to prompt empathy, based on a discontent with the status quo. That is, protest literature. Through the marriage of the personal and political voices in black poetry and music, the genre functions as a form

    Read More

  • Compare Harlem And I Too

    1772 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racism and the sense to fulfill a dream has been around throughout history. Langston Hughes’s poems “Harlem” and “I, Too” both depict the denial of ethnicity mix in society and its impact on an African American’s dream. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” uses jazz music to tie the belief of one’s intention and attainment to the black race. The two main characters are different in a way of one fitting into the norm of the American Dream and the other straying away from such to fulfill his own dream. All three pieces of writing occur during the same time in history in which they connect the black race with the rejection of the American Dream and the opportunity to obtain an individual effort by a culture.

    Read More

  • Blues Boy King

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    Riley B. King better known as B.B. King was born on September 16th 1925 to a family of sharecropping farmers near a small town named Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta. King's parents Albert and Nora Ella King separated when he was five years old and shortly after his mother moved to Kilmicheal Mississippi where Riley spent most of his time living with is grandmother. By age seven King was now working the field like a grown man. A couple of years later at the age of nine his mother died. King continued to live with his grandmother after his mother had past away. His grandmother was very religious and he attended church services with her. It was in the church where King begins to take an interest in music. He had dreams of becoming a gospel singer and learned how to play basic notes on the guitar from his preacher. In 1940 King's grandmother died and he had trouble making ends meet and eventually went to live with his father. (The King of Blues)

    Read More

  • B.B. King

    289 Words  | 1 Pages

    B.B. King was a blues singer and guitarist. His full name is Riley B. King. He was born September 16, 1925, near Indianola, Mississippi. An important aspect in King's life was, of course, when he was first exposed to the blues. 'I guess the earliest sound of the blues that I can rremember was in the fields while people would be pickin' cotton or choppin' or somethin,' " he told Living Blues . " When I sing and play now I can hear those same sounds that I used to hear then as a kid."

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Research Paper

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    First of all, the early life of Frederick Douglass was horrible and very difficult. He was born on February 1818 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. 7 His parents were from two different races. His father was white while his mother was a African American. At that time period slave auctions were held to sell black slaves to white land owners. It was at a slave auction that as a child Frederick Douglass was separated from his Negro mother. His mother was sold and Douglass never saw an inch of her again in his entire life.

    Read More

  • The Roots Of Blues Music

    434 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Roots of Blues Music Blues is a very important type of music. Most music that you hear today has some form of blues in it. If it wasn't for the blues there wouldn't be any rock and roll, country, rap, pop, or jazz . Blues is also important for African American culture. African Americans were also the people who started the blues.

    Read More

More about Essay On Aaron Douglass

Open Document