Black-American Painters

Twentieth Century

These paintings are from publicly owned art at The World of Black Studies Website

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Edward Mitchell Bannister Approaching Storm	John Biggers Shotgun in the 3rd Ward	William H. Johnson Going to Church
Black art is distinctive.. To start with, it really only spans the twentieth century … before then there were few black Americans with time or sponsorship to paint. They missed the interaction with European painters and created their own genre. The genre is largely composed of patterns in a form that could be dismissed as cartoons but the formations, particularly of Johnson and Lawrence's works, are so original and well balanced that it is true art.		The three paintings at the top of this page, span the spectrum from Bannisters classic storm front, that could have fit well into Constable's or Renoir's portfolios, through Biggers' realistic street scene in which the street and building lines forecast the cartoons that are to follow in Johnson work. Of course, it is not as simple as that. These three painters didn't follow in sequence (Biggers is still alive.) It is simply one way of looking at these pieces of art. What is truly original is the humour encompassed in Johnson's work.
	William H. Johnson Cafe
Unfortunately, the opinions of black artists vary between two extremes: On one hand, the artist wants to stayunhealthily in a raqcial confine: "Too many Negro artists go to Europe and come back imitators of Cézanne, Matisse, or Picassso; and this attitude is not only a weakness of the artists, but of their racial public." Sargent Claude Johnson, Black artist (his drawing on the right) … and yet others are willing to learn and move on. "On seeing the work of Paul Cézanne I got the connection. Then I saw the work of Picasso and I saw how Cézanne, Picasso, and the African had a terrific sense of form. The master I chiefly admired at that time was Paul Cézanne; then Picasso, who was certainly bolder and more courageous in his cubist work. Then when I saw his painting called Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon--cubist-like girls with black masks on--the whole thing was clarified for me." Hale A. Woodruff, Black artist Let's face it European art has been developing for a thousand years, it is niot intelligent to ignore. William H. Johnson learnt a great deal by moving to Paris and then to Denmark and finally to North Africa to lean more that he could in the US.