There is a cool and inspirational thing that black artists share with each other in the creative works that they make. They all tie in with black people and what they deal with and how they’ve been oppressed. But it’s not just all depressing things like slavery, police brutality, and being poor. There’s beautiful soulful jazzy art and pictures of black families enjoying home cooked meals. There’s that happy togetherness that brings us together. That hip hoppiness that makes us want to party. But then there’s also that ‘I know the truth behind what you’re going through’.
African American art isn’t just about depressing things and jazz music, no it’s about a long secret past that’s just getting uncovered. African American art, without realizing it, is informing us on things we wouldn’t have known without staring deeply into those swirls of bright colors and dark roots. It’s like a wonderland that’s yet to be discovered, and nobody wants to get to know.
We evolved and grew and made things beautiful and yet… No one wants to see.
But now, people are going to have to see. They are going to have to look, and listen, and learn and pay attention. Just because it’s not written on paper, doesn’t mean it’s not important.
History
(Art had been going on way before this time) Through 1965-1975 when the black rights movement was occurring, so was the blacks arts movement. This movement included African American artists to challenge their right into creative ways such as poetry, art, dramatists, musicians, and writers.
Taking their problems and their fears, black people turned it into something great and amazing, something that represented what they went through. Starting in New York, the wave spread across the country. From Chicago all the way to California, African Americans were getting sick of just sitting around and letting others walk over them and treat them horribly. They took a stand in an innovative way. Through art.
Evolution
While in the past, most African American artists drew and painted about slavery and things they went through. As art evolved, black artists gravitated less from the negative attributes of being black to embracing their culture. It was all about Afros and bright colors. W started making art that only we would know about. That the only people in the wide African American circle could relate to, rather than trying to relate to the white mans art.
And this change didn’t happen overnight. It took a while for African Americans to embrace their blackness and share it to the world.
African American Artists 