Let's examine a handful of artistic movements and consider their historical interplays and their role within the arts at large. Abstract Expressionism, a school that emerged as a truly American philosophy in the 1940s, was a romantic movement. Many believe "AE" was the apex of the century of American creativity. Artists like Kandinsky, William de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock all experimented with color palettes, form, and geometry. AE found tremendous commercial success but lost steam as the American Pop Artists, led by eclectic figures, like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, mass-marketed irony to consumers taking over the American arts. Lost in the great interplay of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism is the story of an earlier art form which flourished in New York's Harlem district. This movement, known as the Harlem Renaissance, took place during the 1920s and 1930s. African-Americans, who had long been creatively suppressed and excluded from the arts, developed a burgeoning, thriving artistic community. What started out as a minor city movement evolved into a full spectrum cultural renaissance and celebration of African-American heritage. Scholars like W. E. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and Alan LeRoy Locke all contributed to this critically important movement. At the same time as the Harlem Renaissance was brewing in New York, the Surrealists of France were tearing down the scaffolding of the dominant Western paradigm. Latching onto feelings of disassociation and overstimulation left in the wake of World War I, the Surrealists and their predecessors, the Dadaists, built images based on subconscious and unconscious impressions. |
