The Heritage of African American Art

African American art is a popular art form among all the diverse arts presented by humans in the world. It has its own unique factor in the field of art and talks about the different social, economic, political and human conditions in the world irrespective of the timeline. The Black art has seen versatile artists through the different periods of time. Some of the famous names are as follows:

v  G. W. Hobbs, Patrick H. Reason, and Joshua Johnson were pioneers of the black art before the civil war period in America.

v  Edward Mitchell Bannister, Henry Ossawa Tanner and Edmonia Lewis Were the artist who emerged after the Civil war and shaped the African American art into something new.

v  Richmond Barthé, Aaron Douglas, Lawrence Harris, Palmer Hayden, William H. Johnson, Sargent Johnson were the names that revolutionized the style of art during the Harlem Renaissance Movement.

v  Horace Pippin, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence were the artists of 1950’s that were able to put their mark on the New York galleries.

v  Larry D. Alexander, Laylah Ali, Amalia Amaki, Emma Amos, Kadir Nelson, Frank Morrison became the newest wave of African American artists of the contemporary world which followed their professional ancestors and innovated a new chapter in the history of Black Art.

All these names are of the greatest artist of African American culture, which is not based on a pleasant history. The participation of African Americans in the field of art began at a very disturbing note. During the 18^th century, the Africans were slaves in America. It was a legal practice which imposed the black people to create iron pieces, quilts, silver and pottery as part of their slavery. A lot of the slave owners allowed the slaves to sell off their pieces of art created during their off time to buy freedom from their masters. With time black people harnessed their skill in the fields of art. A lot of merciful masters encouraged the artistic side of the African Americans and provided them with private tutoring that enhanced their skill of crafting.

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During the period 1861 to 1865, a civil war took place which was fought between Confederate States of America which was a group of states that had declared succession from America and the Union which was the group who opposed them. The war was fought mainly because of the slavery system. After the 4 years of bloodshed and over 600,000 people dead from both sides brought freedom to slaves in America which eventually gave rise to the Black Art.

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