| IMAGES | of BLACKS in ART |
INTRODUCTION![]() "ELMA LEWIS" The National Center of Afro-American Artists 300 Walnut Avenue Roxbury MA |
...this page conntains paintings, drawings and prints in many styles (classical, academic, expressive, abstract) by some of the greatest artists - both white and black - depicting mostly portraits of black subjects. The images range from 16th century European to present-day American. A few highlights: Durer, Head of a Negro, 1508; Rubens, Head of a Negro, c. 1620; and Steven Assael, Head II, 1998.
SELECTED LINKS: ..blacks & blackness in Renaissance African Americans in the Visual Arts National Center of Afro-American Artists Calvin W Burnett (1921-2007) Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) AFRICAN ART | Hamill Gallery African-American History Throught Arts Traditional African Art Images of Africans in European Art (Rembrandt) Pre-Civil War Art Images of African-American Since Reconstruction Henry O. Tanner | Lois Jones' Le Fetiches The Twentieth Centruy Kelley Collection: Works on Paper African American History African-American Artists Romare Bearden Charles White John Wilson Richard Yarde Daly Day Academy: Aristor - Notes & Comments, April 2005 "What is Negro Art?" |
ANCIENT ART - EGYPT ![]() Seti I ![]() King Taharqa |
Whether or not Ancient Egyptians were people of Black African ancestry is a debatable subject; they were certainly African and as such are included here... ![]() Nubian workers ![]() ![]() ![]() Head of Aha Mena Head of Queen Tiye Bust of Nefertiti ![]() ![]() King Tutankhamun Pharaoh Zoser ![]() Head of southern prisoner bound about the neck, Dynasty XVIII, cira 1560-1314 B.C. © St. Louis Art Museum. ![]() Nubians bringing tribute to Egypt. ![]() Group of Nubians Wrestlers from the Memphite tomb of General Horemheb, about 1334 BC - 18th Dynasty
by Cheikh Anta Diop King Narmer, regarded as first Pharaoh with negro features Pharaohs Zoser and Cheops Ancient Africa's Black Kingdoms Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye Images and History of Queen Nefertiti Global African Presence - articles by Runoko Rashidi History of Egypt, Volume 5, by Masperso Wrestling in Ancient Nubia Aha-Mena, Pharaonic Egypt's first monarch Queen Tiye - Kamite Dynasty XVIII King Taharqa's Photo Gallery - 25th Dynasty Chronology of Ancient Eygpt and Nubia Race and History African American - Golden Legacy Black Africans in Ancient Egyptian Art |
GREEK & ROMAN![]() MEMNON pupil of Herodes Atticus |
"The accuracy of the depictions of Black racial types in Classical Greek art shows without any doubt that the artists had real, live, actually models before them." - Negroes in Classical Greece
...MORE TO COME... |
| TRADITIONAL ARTS TRIBAL MASKS SCULPTURE ROCK ART |
![]() BENIN BRONZE ![]() Benin Bronze Head Makonde Mask, Tanzania Benin Ivory Mask ![]() Bowman Algeria rock painting, © Bradshaw Foundation ![]() Ngwaginki (Kitaturu) Singida Region / Iramba District / Kisiriri Division "The majority of the Tanzanian rock paintings are found in Kondoa and the contiguous Lake Eyasi basin. Those at Kondoa are the most easily accessible and perhaps the most dramatic because they are frequently painted on impressive rock faces, situated on steep rocky slopes overlooking valleys below. These paintings were also the first to be reported, as long ago as 1908. Surprisingly they were given little attention, being described and recorded only in brief publications by various scholars until Mary Leakey published her beautifully illustrated book describing the art of Kondoa-Irangi. The renewed research efforts...extend this record, and illustrate how rich this heritage really is; in five field seasons, Dr. Fidelis Masao and his colleagues recorded 140 new sites in Singida and 35 in the Lake Eyasi basin..." from: Forward by Dr. Meave Leakey to The Prehistoric Rock Art of Singida & Lake Eyasi Basin, North Central Tanzania, 2003 MORE COMING SOON.... |
| press images to enlarge |
WORLD ART 1st - 21st Century |
| Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) |
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| Jean Louis Théodore Géricault 1791-1824 |
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| PRE 20th CENTURY PORTRAITS |
Durer, Head of a Negro 1508 chalk (essay)
Frans Hal: Mulatto (so called) 1628-30 Rembrandt The White Negress 1631 etching Govaert Flinck The Young Archer ca. 1639-40 Velazquez: Juan de Pareja 1650 (essay) Rembrandt Two Negros 1661 (enlarge) Portrait of Unknown African, ca. 177cs, oil painting John Singleton Copley Portrait of Negro 1777 Marie Victoire Lemoine: Portrait of Zamor 1785 (enlarge) Anne Louis Girodet Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley 1797 Marie Guilhelmine Benoist Port. of a Negress 1799-1800 English Portrait of a Slave in Chains ca, 1800 Lovis Corinth: Negro ("Un Othello") 1884 oil Thomas Eakins, Port. of Henry O Tanner c.1897 oil
PORTRIATS & FIGURES NOT ILLUSTRATED ABOVE:
Frederic Bazille Negro Girl with Peonies 16th century Nigeria, Edo, Court of Benin Head of an Oba, c. 1550 Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Port. of a Negress 1800 Jan van Biljert, Head of a Moor, etching 1635 Durer Portrait of Moorish Woman Katharina c.1630 Paul Cezanne, The Negro Scipio 1867 Thomas Eakins, The Banjo Player 1877 Thomas Eakiins, Negro Boy Dancing 1878, watercolor Gericault at www.bridgeman.co.uk Alexandre Georges Henri Regnault Head of a Moor/i>, c. 1870 oil on canvas Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial (detail) 1884-1901 Henry Ossawa Tanner, the Banjo Lesson 1893 Velazquez, Las Meninas aka Ladies in Waiting 10'5"x9'5" |
| SLAVERY | ![]() Race, Racism & American Law AMERICAN SLAVE NARRATIVE ![]() ![]() 2 ENGRAVINGS by WILLIAM BLAKE, 1796 left: A Negro hung alive by the Ribs to a Gallows right: Flagellation of a Female Negro Slave The Paradox of Art about Slavery ![]() Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784)
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FREDERICK DOUGLASS |
... prior to the American Revolution, slaves were owned in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, some of them held by wealthy Quakers. Liberation was urged by leaders of the sect, and before 1780, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, no slaves were known to be held by New England Friends.In the days of anti-slavery agitation, the people of New Bedford showed a practical sympathy for fugitive slaves. The town was noted as one of the major "stations" of the "Underground Railroad," which was not a railroad at all, but merely an undercover system, to provide refuge for fugitives. The most famous fugitive to settle in New Bedford was Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist orator and leader, who lived here from 1838 to 1841... |
| BLACKFACE and MINSTRELS ![]() CARICATURE SMILING NEGRO ![]() SMILING BLACK MAN |
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| 20th CENTURY PORTRAITS ![]() THE SMILE oil painting by Gary Frier |
Harold Gilman Study of Negro c.1905
Winold Reiss, Paul Robeson pastel 1925 William H Johnson Self Portrait 1929 Dox Thrash Harnonica Blues 1937-38 Dox Trash, Bronze Boy print c.1937-38 The African-American Mosaic Frederick C. Flemister, Man with Brush (self portrait oil 1940 Thomas Hart Benton, Aaron, 1941 William E. Smiith Pay Day 1941 linoleum cut Charles White Negro: USA 1946 litho portfolio Beauford Delaney Self Portrait 1950 Elizabeth Catlett Sharecropper 1957-70 woodcut Calvin W Burnett Self Portrait ca. 1960 Douglas Aaron, Self Portrait charcoal 1964 Jacob Lawrence Self Portrait 1965 (NPG) Sigmund Abeles, Black Woman 1969 drypoint Scattergood-Moore Please Don't Talk... 1978 Adrian Piper Self-Portrait 1981 Jean-Michel Basquiat Self Portrait 1982 Scattergood-Moore Queen Anne 1985 charcoal Barrington Watson, Self Portrait oil 1987 Sigmund Abeles Tylrone with Drawing of Renee 1996 pastel Shamek-Imin R. Weddle ca. 1998 USA Steven Assael, Head II 1998 Anthony Ryder, Lancelot oil on linen, 1995 John Wilson Martin Luther King, Jr 2002 Timothy Stotz, Rachel (detail) oil 2007 Whitfield Lovell Virtue II 2002 And Bells on Her Toes, 1997 Alexander Chandler, 1995 The Drifter, 1964 Adam, 1963 That Gentleman, 1960 Granddaughter, 1956 |
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SOCIAL COMMENTARY BLACK JESUS |
![]() Thomas Hart Benton Negro Soldier 1942 ![]() Camptown Ladies (detail) by Kara Walker Kara Walker at Whitney Museum of American Art ![]() painting by Nina Buxenbaum |
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NUDES:
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MISCELLANIOUS![]() |
PORTRIATS & FIGURES NOT ILLUSTRATED ABOVE: Steven Assael, Nichol 1997 pencil Basquiat, Self Portrait Thomas Hart Benton, Romance 1932 (study) Thomas Hart Benton, Slaves 1927 Harold Gilman, The Negro Gardener 1905 William H. Johnson (1901-1970) Self Portrait ca. 1923-26 Self Portrait with Bandana 1935-38 The Art of William H. Johnson (bio) Winold Reiss, Portrait of Langston Hughes pastel ca.1925 Timothy Stotz, Lancelot Bourne oil 1998 Meredith Bergmann, Phillis Wheatley: detail of Boston Women's Memorial, 2003 |
| SCULPTURE | ![]() ROBERT BOULD SHAW MEMORIAL by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 - 1907) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
![]() JOHN WILSON left: Eternal Presence, 1987, bronze maquette RALPH HELMICK right: MLK Jr." maquette, 1999 |
![]() HELEN WEST HELLER Alabama Bio-Chemist, woodcut, 1947 collection of Scattergood-Moore ![]() HELEN WEST HELLER Cotton Pickers woodcut, 1935 left panel of American Soil collection of Scattergood-Moore |
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