Facing African-American History Through African-American Art

When the Philadelphia Museum of Art purchased Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting The Annunciation in 1899, they became the first American museum to acquire a work by an African-American artist. That purchase announced a new era of recognition of African-American art and artists just as much as the painting itself announced a new style of art moving away from stereotypical “black” scenes towards a freedom of aesthetic choice. Persons of color could express themselves in any way, even abstraction, but faced the new problem of remaining true to themselves at the same time. The new exhibition Represent: 200 Years of African American Art and accompanying catalogue show how these artists faced the challenges posed to them by art and society and provide all of us with a fascinating guide to facing African-American history—tragic, tenacious, transcendent—through its art. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Facing African-American History Through African-American Art."

Resurrecting the Father of African-American Art

While walking in Fairmount Park in 1872 with his minister father, 12-year-old Henry Ossawa Tanner saw a man painting and became curious about art. His family fed that curiosity, which led Tanner to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), continue his studies in Paris, ultimately build an international reputation as an important religious painter, and use his status to mentor and support young artists for decades—all remarkable achievements, but even more remarkable for an African-American in the late 19^th century. In Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, at the PAFA through April 15, 2012, curator Anna O. Marley and her fellow researchers seek to resurrect this forgotten father of African-American art from the tomb of obscurity built over the nearly eight decades since his death. But just as Tanner himself shunned the title in life, the exhibition and catalog invite the idea while simultaneously showing him as an artist that transcended all labels, especially those of race. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Resurrecting the Father of African-American Art."

[Image: Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937). The Resurrection of Lazarus, 1896. Oil on canvas, 37 x 48 in. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France, Inv. RF1980-173. Photo: Hervé Lewandoswki © Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.]

[Many thanks to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for providing me with the image above from, a press pass to view, and other press materials related to the exhibition Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, which runs through April 15, 2012. Many thanks to the University of California Press for providing me with a review copy of the catalog to the exhibition.]

The Man Without a Country

Although Henry Ossawa Tanner rose to prominence as the first great African-American artist, in the minds of many of his contemporaries, he always remained exactly that—an “African-American” artist and not just an artist. Born June 21, 1859, Tanner painted to escape from the prejudices of his time, but still found prejudice in the American art world. “I was extremely timid and to be made to feel that I was not wanted, although in a place where I had every right to be, even months afterwards caused me sometimes weeks of pain,” Tanner wrote in his autobiography. “Every time any one of these disagreeable incidents came into my mind, my heart sank, and I was anew tortured by the thought of what I had endured, almost as much as the incident itself.” Tanner’s very presence and talent challenged the mindset of his time. In The Banjo Lesson (above, from 1893), Tanner paints an older black man teaching music to a child in a warm and exceedingly human fashion. It lacks the burlesque of Thomas Eakins’ The Dancing Lesson, another scene of African-American culture being transmitted. As Alan C. Braddock points out in Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity (reviewed here), Eakins puts into paint the ideology that held African-American culture as less sophisticated than white culture. A photo of Abraham Lincoln reading with his son Tad in the upper left-hand corner of The Dancing Lesson illustrating the perceived culture gap. Even Eakins, Tanner’s teacher, fell prey to this prejudice. Perhaps thinking of the Lincolns in Eakins’ picture, Tanner paints the two generations of African-Americans in a way that recalls that picture of white father and son reading, a possibly defiant gesture for the quiet Tanner. Tanner painted The Banjo Lesson in 1893 while briefly revisiting America. Unhappy with racial conditions in the United States, Tanner moved to France in 1891 and lived there for the rest of his life.

Although Tanner’s lauded as the first great African-American painter, few of his paintings deal with race. The Banjo Lesson and a few others are actually the exceptions in his career. Tanner’s The Annunciation (above, from 1898) is actually more representative of his body of work. Using his wife as a model for the Virgin Mary receiving the angel telling her that she’s going to give birth to the messiah, Tanner creates a scene of simplicity and realism that strikes at the heart of the humanity of the scene rather than plasters piety over it. I’ve looked at this painting many times in person at the PMA and always come away touched by the depth of feeling and faith it conveys. Depicting the angel as simply a brilliant light, Tanner resists the urge to bring the heavenly down to earth through illustration. It was this great faith that allowed Tanner to go on despite racial prejudice. France must have seemed like a great oasis to him. When artists of the Harlem Renaissance such as William H. Johnson traveled to Paris in the 1920s in pursuit of a better racial climate and new art experiences, they sought out Tanner as a pioneer and a pattern for their own careers.

Tanner never returned to America. Sadly, it took many years for him to gain any recognition in his homeland. In 1996, President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton oversaw the purchase of Tanner’s Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (above, from 1885) for the White House’s Green Room, making it the first artwork by an African-American artist to become part of the White House’s permanent collection. It was a fitting way of bringing Tanner “home,” in that rather than force the label of African-American artist on him with one of his images of black culture, the Clintons chose instead a landscape that could have been painted by anyone with great talent, regardless of skin color. Tanner had finally found the racially blind acceptance that he had looked for all along.

In the Name of Love

To mark the New Year, January’s Art Poll By Bob asked “Which of the following years in art do you consider your favorite?” and you answered, leading to the first tie in poll history: with both 1541 (Michelangelo completes The Last Judgment and his work on The Sistine Chapel; El Greco born) and 1863 (Manet exhibits The Luncheon on the Grass at the Salon des Refuses and paints Olympia, ushering in the age of Impressionism; Edvard Munch born) getting 13 votes. 1793 (The Louvre opens in Paris, beginning the phenomenon of the public art museum) came in second with 9 votes, followed by 1949 (LIFE Magazine asks if Jackson Pollock is “America’s Greatest Painter”; Abstract Expressionism takes hold; New York becomes the art capital of the world) with 8 and 1889 (Van Gogh paints his Sunflowers; The Eiffel Tower opens as part of the transformation of Paris) with 7. Amazingly, the usually popular Van Gogh came in dead last this time.

The longer that poll ran, the more great years came to mind, as I’m sure they came to yours.

For February, to celebrate Black History Month in the United States, I decided to ask, “Which of the following African-American artists is your favorite?” :

Romare Bearden

Beauford Delaney

Aaron Douglas

William H. Johnson

Jacob Lawrence

Horace Pippin

Martin Puryear

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Kara Walker

Kehinde Wiley

There are so many great, yet unrecognized African-American artists that this list just scratches the surface. I wish I could have added Aaron McGruder, whose manga-inspired, politically incorrect comic The Boondocks (above) never failed to make me laugh and think. I only listed those artists that I know well, so please add in comments any names you think should be included and why. This entire blog is a learning experience for me (and I hope in some small way for my readers), so I look at this poll and this month as an opportunity to learn more about the contributions of African-Americans to the world of art. From pioneers such as Tanner to modern artists such as Walker and Wiley, they have left their mark on American and world art, regardless of how much we realize it.

If you find that none of these names are familiar, take a moment to click through and learn more about these artists and the meaning behind their lives and work. I’m sure you’ll find a favorite in no time.

An African-American in Paris

Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African-American painter to gain an international reputation, was born on this date in 1859. Tanner spent most of his life in Paris to escape the racism he found in America and died there in 1937. The Banjo Lesson, one of Tanner’s many paintings depicting the life of African-Americans in the late 19th century, appears above.

Tanner studied under Thomas Eakins at the PAFA from 1879 through 1885. Eakins’ influence shows through clearly in how Tanner approached his subjects in a realistic manner. Tanner’s studies in Paris also helped shape his painting technique. In 1891, Tanner briefly returned to Philadelphia, where he painted The Banjo Lesson and similar scenes, such as The Thankful Poor (above), which was purchased by the comedian Bill Cosby in 1981 for $250,000 USD. Sadly, despite his obvious talent, Tanner felt unappreciated by the American arts community and returned to Paris to stay.

Tanner enjoyed the more liberal racial attitudes of Paris and eventually married Jessie Macauley Olssen, a white musician. In Europe, Tanner abandoned his scenes of African-American life and devoted himself to biblical paintings, such as The Annunciation (above), in which Tanner’s wife served as the model for the Virgin Mary. I’ve seen The Annunciation many times at the PMA and always wonder at the combination of homely realism and the fantastic depiction of the Angel Gabriel at left as a being of pure light. I’ve always seen Tanner’s religious works as a great “what if”: What if Eakins had the same depth of religious feeling that his student Tanner had? Fortunately, Tanner’s works more than suffice.

Artists such as William H. Johnson sought out Tanner in Paris as a forerunner and example of what an African-American artist could be, especially one who has chosen the life of an expatriate. Tanner continues to serve as an example to African-American artists and as a reminder of the price America has paid for its own intolerances.