The Art of the Harlem Renaissance was the product of the African-American art and literary movement in the neighborhood of Harlem in the uptown Manhattan. Alain Locke’s book “The New Negro” encouraged the black artists to retrieve their ancestral birthright as their means of strengthening their expression. African-American embraced all forms of art including painting, dance, music, theatre, film and cabaret.

Art of the Harlem Renaissance was more than just an art and literary movement and more than just a social revolt against racial discrimination. It had acclaimed the unique and wonderful culture of the African-Americans which redefined their own expression.

Aaron Douglas was the Harlem Renaissance Artist whose works best epitomized the New Negro Philosophy. His works were Arts of the Harlem Renaissance. He painted the four-panel series of the Aspects of Negro Life which traces the journey of African-Americans from liberation in Africa to enslavement in the United States and from freedom after the Civil War to modern city life. His work Song of the Towers also represents the African-American struggle from slavery to self-emancipation in American cities. Most of his paintings depicted the importance of the African culture spirit.

Lois Jones works were also considered as Harlem Renaissance Art. She entered the School of the Museum of Fine Art in a time were racism and discrimination are the features of American life. She continued her art career in spite of these barriers. Her famous works include Negro Shack I, Fishing Smacks, Les Pommes Vertes and Jennie.

Other Harlem Renaissance artists were Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and William Johnson.

Harlem Renaissance prospered from early 1920 to 1940. It was an African-American’s expression of social thought and culture which occurred in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City, a newly-formed Black community. Named after The New Negro anthology, it was better known as the “New Negro Movement”. It was expressed through every cultural dance, medium-visual art, music, literature, theatre, history, poetry and politics of Harlem. African-American writers, artists and musicians convey their civil rights and equality through their art and culture instead of direct political means. Thus, Harlem Renaissance Art fired up.

Harlem Renaissance Art is the result of the African-American Cultural Revolution. African-American made this as a way to uplift their spirit and give importance on their life. This serves as their means to voice out and express the real state of their lives as they add sophistication and mirth in their lifestyle. It created a lasting legacy of African-American writings, paintings and music that was realized into their mainstream culture.

Harlem Renaissance Art is presented with the works of William H. Johnson in his Self Portrait with Bandana and Lois Mailou Jones in her Les Fetiches. On the other hand Aaron Douglas was considered as the “Father of African-American Art) through his works such as Idylls of the Deep South and Into Bondage. Other prominent Harlem Renaissance artists are Sir Jacob Epstein (Portrait Bust of Paul Robeson), Jacob Lawrence (Dust to Dust), Ronald Moody (Midonz) and Archibald Motley Jr. (Blues). Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith’s music also comprises the rich artistic legacy of the Harlem Renaissance Period.