Study for Aspects of Negro Life: The Negro in an African Setting
Aaron Douglas
1934
- Medium
- Gouache, with touches of graphite, on illustration board
- Dimensions
- 37.2 × 40.6 cm (14 11/16 × 16 in.)
- Genre
- gouache
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
paintingillustration boarddrawings (visual works)graphitedancingmodern and contemporary artgouachedrumsmenpainting (image making)prints and drawingpeoplewatercolorwomen
About
Aaron Douglas made this finished study for the first of five murals intended for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The murals depict the history of African Americans, from their origins in Africa to life in America in the 1930s. Blending Egyptian figures in profile and West African masks with cubism and art deco, Douglas utilized a hybrid Western-African aesthetic that became a hallmark of the Harlem Renaissance.