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[[image - black & white photograph of Romare Bearden reclining on a rattan couch]]

[[caption]] BLACK ENTERPRISE / DECEMBER 1975 [[/caption]]

In the 1940s, with the publication of Dr. Alain Locke's "The Negro in Art" and Dr. James Porter's, "Modern Negro Art", some Americans began to realize that from the earliest days of this republic black artists were involved in shaping America's culture. Black artisans in New Orleans and Charleston, S.C., fashioned much of the iron grillworks now universally recognized as masterworks of American design. Other artisans built many of the great plantation houses, and in some instances, they even crafted the complete furnishings for these homes.
  
The 18th century Afro-American poet, Phyllis Wheatley, wrote a poem honoring her contemporary, Scipio Morehead, one of the first black professional artists. None of Morehead's paintings are presently identified, but judging from Wheatley's description, he was probably a painter of historical subjects. I use the term, "presently identified," because after years of searching, Dr. James Pleasants, a Baltimore physician, found a number of paintings that he claimed were done by another black artist of the Colonial period, Joshua Johnston of Baltimore. 
  
In recent years other works by this artist have been located and eagerly sought by collectors. Paintings by Johnston are now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City; the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and several are in the collection of Edgar and Bernice Garbisch, who have an extensive group of paintings from the Colonial era.
  
Robert Duncanson, Edmonia Lewis, Edward Bannister, and Henry O. Tanner are the best known 19th century Afro-American artists. All except Bannister spent many years in Europe. In fact, Edmonia Lewis and Henry Tanner lived there during most of their formative and mature years. Most leading 19th century American artists studied abroad. For black artists it was also a means of avoiding a prejudice that very often denied them an opportunity to be artists.
  
Bannister and Duncanson were landscape painters, and Duncanson must be equated with the better landscape painters of the 19th century. He and his Cincinnati associates, William Sonntag, Worthington Whitteridge and others, were not only great delineators of the American landscape, they can also be considered as "explorers" in that they helped Americans understand the scope and grandeur of their country.
  
Edmonia Lewis was the first Afro-American woman to function completely as a professional artist. At the huge 1967 exhibit, "The Evolution of Afro-American Artists, 1800-1950" which was held in the Great Hall at the City College of N.Y., her sculpture, "Forever Free" (done in 1867), that depicts a slave couple breaking the shackles of bondage, was dramatically lighted to focus the theme of the exhibition. 
  
Tanner gained international recognition in 1897, when his "Resurrection of Lazarus" was acknowledged one of the most brilliant paintings in the annual French Academy exhibition in Paris. This work was purchased by the French government and soon afterwards Tanner's reputation was firmly established.
  
Although Paris gave him a congenial atmosphere in which to work, Tanner never forgot his American experience. His paintings reflected his sincere religious faith, which was developed in the Afro-American religious culture. He lived and worked, as most dedicated artists do, out of recesses deep within himself, and, most importantly, he had the ability to develop and sustain his personal vision of life and art throughout a long career.
  
During the 19th century, black painters and sculptors were a few isolated persons. Not until the 1920s, the so-called period of the Negro Renaissance, did black artists emerge in fairly significant numbers. At this time, Dr. Alain Locke became a significant influence in their thinking and work through publication of "The New Negro" (which he edited) and his critical writings, in which he called upon black artists to seek the highest standards and to also seek inspiration in their cultural heritage.
  
Because of the growing American interest in art, accompanied by comparative prosperity, black artists began to appear throughout the country. Aaron Douglas and Hale Woodruff came from the mid-West; Palmer Hayden from Virginia; Augusta Savage from Florida; Richmond Barthe from Louisiana; William H. Johnson from South Carolina; and Lois Jones Pierre-Noel and Sargent Johnson from Massachusetts.
  
Ironically, it was not until the depression of the 1930s that black artists got their best opportunities to 

by Romare Bearden