The Harlem Renaissance and Pop Art

949 Words4 Pages
The Harlem Renaissance and Pop Art: Is it Possible That They Are Related? The Harlem Renaissance refers to the period in the early 1900s when African American art, writing and drama began to take hold in the cultural hotbed that was Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. Due to the anti-black legislation that was being passed in the South and the general culture of hatred and fear in the former slave states, African Americans flocked north and west in the Great Migration; they hoped to find a place where there was more social and economic freedom for African Americans. This grouping of black people from all walks of life, from poor former sharecroppers, to the black middle class, to recent immigrants from the Caribbean and other areas, lead to a blossoming of ideas and artistic styles that created a new black culture. This Harlem Renaissance period began when a white playwright put complex and thoroughly human African-American characters into his plays. Soon, newspapers, magazines and art galleries opened up, and continued to flourish even into the Great Depression. The style of the Harlem Renaissance was characterized by a desire to re-represent the African-American people and to put to rest the white caricatures and degrading stereotypes prevalent in a racist society. After World War I, black visual artists began to develop styles related to African aesthetic traditions and folk art. This style was largely involved with the political stirrings of the day, which is unusual for an artistic movement. Above all, through their work, artists in the Harlem Renaissance sought to make their mark on the literary, musical, and visual art world in the United States. This cultural revolution in Harlem was very much a precursor to the black Civil Rights movement later in the century, where the first true steps towards racial equality would be taken. Pop Art refers to
Open Document