Aaron DouglasA Kansas Portrait
Douglas gained an appreciation for life through various jobs early in his life. His first job was for Skinner's Nursery in Topeka. He worked at the Union Pacific material yard and as a waiter jobs while at the University of Nebraska, where he received a degree in art. Douglas moved to Harlem in June 1925, resigning his two-year post as teacher at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He went on to earn a master's in fine arts from the Teacher's College at Columbia University in 1944 in New York. Years later, art historian David Driskell dubbed Douglas the "father of Black American art." He looked upon his African ancestry to inspire his paintings. Aaron Douglas created a mural series "Aspects of Negro Life," completed in 1934 for the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The titles of the four murals are: "The Negro In An African Setting," "An Idyll of the Deep South," "From Slavery Through Reconstruction," and "Song of the Towers." Douglas was invited by sociologist Charles S. Johnson, the first black president of Fisk University as a mentor from Harlem, to join the faculty of Fisk University as chairman and founder of the Department of Education. Douglas eventually received "liberal praise" for his eight symbolic drawings that illustrated Weldon Johnson's book, God's Trombone. He studied art in Paris and became the first president of the Harlem Artists guild. In addition to his formal studies, Douglas felt he had been educated through his association with people and the variety of jobs he held during his lifetime. This experience is reflected in his art. Douglas' murals were a unique way of celebrating African American achievement and he was hailed as the "Father of Black American Art" and a leader among the creative African American artists. |
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