The “Lindy Hop” is a painting by Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias. The Lindy Hop is currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of the “Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle” exhibition. Dance has long fascinated artists interested in capturing the human body in motion and the spectacle. Beginning in the late 1800s, new forms of dance coincided with the development of modern visual art, leading to a dynamic exchange between the two forms of creative expression. (Philamuseum.org) The image and exhibition that I researched celebrates the world of dance, which includes lively imagery of famous performers, bustling scenes of nightlife, and abstract explorations of motion, rhythm, and atmosphere. Artist have often used …show more content…
the subject of dance to comment on contemporary society and culture. The major characteristics that are exemplified in the “Lindy Hop” are: art showed a great interest in dance, Figures were lifelike, bodies looked and were shown moving, and the painting was symmetrical. It is done lithograph giving it a black and white look. The artistic style that the Lindy Hop exemplifies is figurative, focused on cultural, and social class of the Harlem Renaissance. The Jitterbugs (No. 2) by William Henry Johnson complements the Lindy Hop considering it is a painting of a dance similar to the Lindy Hop. This piece of artwork is a piece in the “Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle” currently displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Jitterbugs (No. 2) was made with color screen print on a board with light colors in the background to bring out the figures in the artwork. Another piece of artwork that complements the “Lindy Hop” is “Rhythms, Opening”, which is also on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the “Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle”. This piece of artwork is woodcut. This piece shows the image of movement. My first reaction when I saw this artwork was it was truly fascinated. The painting depicts people dancing the “Lindy Hop” which was a popular dance during the Harlem Renaissance period. The painting appears to be done in black and white. Covarrubias is capturing the nightlife during the Harlem Renaissance. The painting reminded me of the painting on the show “Good Times” were African-Americans are shown dancing having a good time. Miguel Covarrubias was a self-taught artist and writer. When he was 19 he moved to New York and immediately made a name for himself as a stage designer, illustrator, and caricaturist. Covarrubias was introduced to Carl Van Vechten. After get to know Covarrubias, Van Vechten introduced him to Harlem, and Covarrubias took to the life there immediately, inspired by the creative rush of the Harlem Renaissance (Rizzo, J. 38-39). Covarrubias spent night after night cultivating relationships. Late eveningshaunting the uptown cafes with playwright Eugene O'Neill led to illustrations for books, including Langston Hughes's first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues, and Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men (Rizzo, J. 38-39). Covarrubias's Negro Drawings, published in 1927, captured performers in jazz clubs and people on the streets. The fascination with portraying everyday individuals grew, and he eventually became an anthropologist, ethnologist, and educator (Rizzo, J. 38-39). Many of his sketches of artists, politicians and other public figures appeared in Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker and The New York World. Covarrubias was rooted in his interest in documenting humanity, particularly in the face of rapid cultural change. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of time in the 1920s and 1930s in which the African-American community began having an outpour of cultural representation in American (and international) society, through various forms of art.
There were many types of artists represented during the Renaissance, including musicians, poets, playwrights and visual artists. The artists’ works showed the multiple variations an African American society, as works depicted differences in their social classes, where they lived, and even gender (Stuart, A. 40). The relationship that the Renaissance had with larger conceptions of the American experience was its national expansion and a direct corollary between the rise of artists and and the rise of African American society as a whole. Using art an everlasting form of expression of power and freedom, black artists were able to portray their representation of black life, in an honest way, for one of the first times in American history. African Americans soon had a larger voice in social and political matters, with Harlem representing a city of transformation and progress. Through its roots in Harlem, New York, the upward African American movement was able to move to other American cities, such as Chicago and Boston, and eventually, to European cities such as London and Paris, eventually even reaching …show more content…
Africa. The “Great Migration” of African Americans to the northern United States played in shaping politics of the era. Industrialization attracted blacks living in rural areas to move to larges cities with the promise of industrial work, and being considered closer as equals to their white neighbors than ever allowed in the southern states (Stuart, A. 40). With blacks moving north, more and more began to use art as a way to express themselves. The majority of African Americans had long grown weary of white Americans control on black images and representations. Black art used this form of artistic (and personal) freedom to advance black struggles, and protest against racism. Some African American artists questioned the existence of a separate black culture, and accused black artists of creating works of art that catered to racist white customers and critics Harlem artists used their forms of medium, such as the journal Fire!!, as an act of cultural rebellion (Stuart, A. 40). New forms of black expression questioned traditional views, whether they be artistic, political, or social. Black artists celebrated new forms of contemporary music, such as jazz, varying beliefs in religion, and even homosexuality, (as numerous artists of this period were gay or bisexual) which had always been considered to be taboo subjects. While some artists did use these new means to create “unrealistic depictions of black life” these acts were able to help create an ongoing relationship between artistic expression and politics. At a point during the Harlem Renaissance some critics were discomfited at seeing racial characteristics caricatured but conceded that the artist's fascination with black culture was sympathetic. The real problem with these drawings was not that they might be perceived as racist but that they weren't very interesting. Compared with his scenes of comic madness, these "serious" drawings were commonplace. The most impressive thing about the collection was that Covarrubias had found the time to do it. Besides appearing in such old standbys as Vanity Fair, Delineator, Theatre Magazine, The Nation, and Screenland, his work was frequently seen in that new magazine for sophistic-cares The New Yorker. In addition, he was illustrating books and book jackets, creating theater posters for productions in New York and Paris, designing costumes and sets for George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, organizing exhibits of his work, and traveling to North Africa for fresh subjects to sketch and paint. He even found time to fall in love. Although overweight, shy, and perpetually sweaty, Covarrubias was strongly attractive to women--among them, a beautiful dancer named Rose (later Rosa) Rolanda, whom his roommate brought home one day. They became friends, collaborators (he designed the set for Garrick Gaities, in which she starred), and lovers. They did not marry, however, for five years, by which time the world had become a far different place. The Crash of 1929 changed everything, including the page rates that magazines paid. Still, Covarrubias could afford an extended honeymoon in the South Pacific, concluding with a nine-month sojourn in Bali. It was in Bali that the artist developed his passion for anthropological research, an avocation that would soon eclipse his affection for caricature. Even without the customary flower behind his ear, dark-skinned Covarrubias could pass for a native of the island, and with his gift for languages, he mingled easily. By the time the couple sailed for home, he had filled numerous sketchbooks with drawings of Balinese customs and ceremonies, many of which he transformed into oil and gouache paintings during the crossing. Back in the States, Covarrubias applied for and received a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative work in painting in the Dutch East Indies, which contributed to his best-selling book Island of Bali.
Its publication in November 1937 and the publicity that preceded it inspired a brief South Seas craze. Life magazine did a story, "Mexican Covarrubias in Dutch Bali," illustrated by the artist's work, the Brooklyn Museum exhibited his paintings of Balinese dancers, and Paramount's Honeymoon in Bali capitalized on the sudden interest in the exotic South Pacific.
With such heady success, Covarrubias can hardly be blamed for losing his enthusiasm for caricature. Vanity Fair, a victim of the never-ending Depression, had folded, and neither The New Yorker nor Vogue was a dependable showcase for his caricatures. Perhaps, too, the fact that other caricaturists --Garetto, for example--were using stylistic devices similar to his own made Covarrubias feel it was time to move on. And move on he did. He packed up and took Rosa back to his family's home in Tizapan outside Mexico
City. Covarrubias thought that by leaving Manhattan, he could simplify his life and focus on his newfound vocation of anthropologist, but his and Rosa's home soon became a magnet for every foreign writer or artist who visited Mexico. Rosa divided her time among choreography, some excellent painting of her own, and her lunches of gastronomic fame where one might encounter such artists as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Georgia O'Keeffe; film personalities like Orson Welles, Dolores del Rio, Luis Bunuel, Tyrone Power, and John Huston; the choreographer Merce Cunningham; the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson; the aviatrix Amelia Earhart; and the art patron (and, some said, Rosa's lover) Nelson Rockefeller.
I believe that the purpose of this art piece is to portray Afro-Cuban imagery and show the kinship between humans and nature. The painting is medium size, it is 42 in. x 35 in. In spite of the fact that the painting is 68 years old, it is in a pretty good condition: it barely has any scratches or cracks, fissures. The colors look faded. However, it might have been the intentional part of the concept.
In the 1920s, the great migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North sparked an African–American cultural renaissance that took its name from the New York City neighborhood of Harlem but became a widespread movement in cities throughout the North and West. Also known as the Black Renaissance or the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics turned their attention seriously to African–American literature, music, art and politics(Hornsby, 1993; Hazen, 2004).
Many other African American people were becoming famous through theatres, music, art , and literature. The people that were directly involved with the renaissance were often more of the educated and middle class blacks (Jackson 2) . During the 1920's in the United States the Great Migration was going on. This would cause many African Americans to move away from the south and head north. By doing this, this caused them to populate more and more in New York, which was the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. (Jackson 2).
When informing the readers that her fans would often write not only about her work but also about “… [her] youthful indiscretions, the slings and arrows I suffered as a minority…” (Tan 1), this bothered Tan to an extent because she By educating herself she was able to form her own opinion and no longer be ignorant to the problem of how women are judge by their appearance in Western cultures. By posing the rhetorical question “what is more liberating” (Ridley 448), she is able to get her readers to see what she has discovered. Cisneros also learned that despite the fact that she did not take the path that her father desired, he was still proud of all of her accomplishments. After reading her work for the first time her father asked “where can I get more copies” (Cisneros 369), showing her that he wanted to show others and brag about his only daughters accomplishments.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of blacks that helped changed their identity. Creative expression flourished because it was the only chance blacks had to express themselves in any way and be taken seriously. World War I and the need for workers up North were a few pull factors for the migration and eventually the Renaissance. A push was the growing discrimination and danger blacks were being faced with in the southern cities. When blacks migrated they saw the opportunity to express themselves in ways they hadn’t been able to do down south. While the Harlem Renaissance taught blacks about their heritage and whites the heritage of others, there were also negative effects. The blacks up North were having the time of their lives, being mostly free from discrimination and racism but down South the KKK was at its peak and blacks that didn’t have the opportunities to migrate experienced fatal hatred and discrimination.
During and after World War One , the Great Migration caused many African Americans to move from rural areas of the country to the northern states. Many people flocked to Harlem, New York in hopes that they too would become a part of the culture phenomenon taking place. This culture boom became known as The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an influential movement that “kindled a new black culture identity “(History.com). With the turning of the age it seemed the perfect opportunity for Afro- Americans to create a new identity.
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great
“Dance is movement aware of itself. Dance is purposeful movement that employs artful communication to express ideas and feelings, meaning that aesthetic intention is present” (Cornett, 2014, p 394). Art could be anywhere and anything it just needs to have creativity in order to make it unique and beautiful. One simple art form, could speak for a thousand words and convey many significant messages such as the art form of dance. Baile Folklorico is a great example of communicating in a unique and a stunning art form. Baile Folklorico is a folk dance that elaborates different dances, music and costumes to represent a Latin or Mexican culture.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The decade between 1920 and 1930 was an extremely influential span of time for the Black culture. During these years Blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means of growth, they hoped to destroy the pervading racism and stereotypes suffocating the African American society and yearned for racial and social integration. Many Black writers spoke out during this span of time with books proving their natural humanity and desire for equality.
2. The African American culture blossomed during the Harlem Renaissance, particularly in creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.
All in all, the Harlem Renaissance was a black cultural movement that took place in the North, particularly in Harlem. Many African Americans stood out including Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. They were all different kinds of artists who were a part of the Great Migration. These artists traveled from the South and other parts if the world to the North because of the increase in black population and culture. Each one of them made a large impact on the Harlem Renaissance and changed black culture forever.
During the Great Migration, an influx of African Americans fled to Northern cities from the South wishing to flee oppression and the harshness of life as sharecroppers. They brought about a new, black social and cultural identity- a period that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Originally the Harlem Renaissance was referred to as the “New Negro Movement” (Reader’s Companion.) It made a huge impact on urban life. The Harlem Renaissance played a major role in African American art, music, poetic writing styles, culture and society.
The months and even the years prior to the Harlem Renaissance was very bleak and the futures of life in America for African-Americans didn’t bode seem to bode very. Well progression towards and reaching the era known as the Harlem Renaissance changed the whole perception of the future of the African-American people as well as life for the group as we know it today. It can be best described by George Hutchinson as ”a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history [that took place specifically in Harlem]. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts...”. With an increase on the focus of “Black culture”, America seemed
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great rebirth for African American people and according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the “Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s.” Wikipedia also indicates that it was also known as the “Negro Movement, named after the 1925 Anthology by Alan Locke.” Blacks from all over America and the Caribbean and flocked to Harlem, New York. Harlem became a sort of “melting pot” for Black America. Writers, artists, poets, musicians and dancers converged there spanning a renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was also one of the most important chapters in the era of African American literature. This literary period gave way to a new type of writing style. This style is known as “creative literature.” Creative literature enabled writers to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that were of importance to African Americans. These issues include racism, gender and identity, and others that we...