Interpretation of The New Negro in Modernist Art

The Harlem Renaissance and Alain Locke's Influence

The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was instigated through the efforts of Alain Locke. In March 1925, he edited an issue of the Survey Graphic magazine entitled Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro, followed by an anthology titled The New Negro: An Interpretation. This anthology was abundant with illustrations from European artists such as Winold Reiss and African American artist Aaron Douglas. Writers who are now considered fundamental to the black literary canon, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, came of age during this period. The New York Herald Tribune asserted that America was 'on the edge, if not already in the midst, of what might not improperly be called a Negro renaissance' (Tribune, 1925). Locke encouraged young African American artists to emulate the European modernist movement, which was undeniably influenced by African art. He acknowledged that 'by being modern,' black artists were inherently 'being African,' a statement intended to strengthen their African cultural identity (Locke, 1925).

Interpretation of The New Negro in Modernist Art

Locke’s ideology was deeply rooted in politics. He was convinced that through the high-level production of art by young black creatives, there would be a 're-evaluation by white and black alike.' This re-evaluation was expected to lead to an awakening within the Negro community, with hopes that they would gain momentum in their demand for civil rights, as well as social and economic equality. Unfortunately, the 1929 stock market crash interrupted and ultimately suspended the growth of the 'Negro’s cultural adolescence' (Huggins, 1971).

Criticism and Impact

Historically, scholars have been reluctant to evaluate the Harlem Renaissance positively. It was criticized and interpreted as “pandering to white taste in the form of primitive depictions of black sensuality and hedonism in the literature, art, music, and dance” (Lewis, 1981). Harlem was a site for culture; Langston Hughes asserted that it “was like a great magnet for the Negro intellectual pulling him from everywhere. Once in New York, he had to live in Harlem” (Hughes, 1940). These intellectuals intended to transform the banal image of African Americans as merely descendants of slavery, biologically inferior and 'environmentally unfit for mechanized modernity and its cosmopolitan forms of fluid identity,' into people who recognized their own branch of culture (Huggins, 1971).

Motley’s Interpretation of the New Negro

Nightlife (1943), an oil on canvas painting by Archibald John Motley Jr., illustrates a club setting filled with thirty well-dressed African American people. The eye is immediately drawn to a couple dancing in the middle of the canvas: a woman in a bright orange dress and her male counterpart in a purple suit. To their right, another African American couple sits at a round table in conversation, both holding drinks while the man simultaneously smokes a cigarette. Motley pays close attention to the varying hues of black skin, adjusting the male's skin tone according to the nightclub lighting; similarly, the woman's dress is shadowed along the breast. The addition of pearls emphasizes the patrons' general status, from their accessories to high heels and suits, suggesting they take pride in their appearance.

Motley’s stunning use of color and movement, the warmth of the hues, and the curved lines give the impression of a relaxed, joyful, and spirited atmosphere where people are having fun. There is perceived depth to the painting as Motley pays close attention to the sizing and placement of patrons further away from the viewer, extending the dance floor as far as the eye can see. Additionally, Motley includes details such as a clock in the top left corner that appears to have struck one AM, which, while not prominent, is intrinsic to the artwork's holistic quality. Motley’s technique is effective; he uses thick yet smooth brush strokes while simultaneously outlining each figure with intention. Each individual, whether in the foreground or background—from the patron slumped over the bar counter to the tasking bartender—is central to the piece's robustness and commitment, as well as the modernist context in which he works.

The Jazz Age and the New Negro

In the wake of World War I, the United States was embroiled in a 'climate of suspicion and xenophobia.' Despite this, there was still 'unprecedented prosperity and a rapid rise to global economic leadership' (Lewis, 1981). With this prosperity came a 'burgeoning mass culture of leisure and entertainment,' epitomizing the Jazz Age of the 1920s. African Americans were not immune to this cultural shift, which would ripple on for decades to come through 'movies, radio, records, mass circulation magazines to tabloid newspapers.' Modernity had been transformed, and there was now a shift from the old Negro to the 'New Negro' (Locke, 1925). With the migration of many blacks from the racist South to the North, where there was an illusion of sanctuary, economic opportunity, social equity, and freedom from the repressive climate of humiliation, degradation, and terrorism, Locke endeavored to instill racial pride, self-respect, and vitality in African American art. The New Negro aimed to transform the “‘old’ Negro of slavery and segregation, challenging hateful racism and the demeaning separatism of Jim Crow with a positive spirit that emphasizes African American self-determination and contributions to contemporary American culture” (Huggins, 1971).

Critiques and Future Perspectives

Alain Locke, a Howard University professor and philosopher, published The New Negro in 1925, defining this shift from old to new in cultural and artistic terms. The Jazz Age is reflected in Nightlife, offering a glimpse into the African American community immersing themselves in enjoyment and fun. With rampant segregation extending to restaurants, bars, clubs, and many other public places that participated in separatist ideas of ‘colored’ or ‘whites only,’ it became essential for a shift in narrative from the solemn and somber to joyfulness. Motley’s work and his willingness to find inspiration in black nightlife, depicting spaces where black bodies are given agency to unwind, is a stark contrast to the oppressive, anxiety-ridden norm. In these spaces, African Americans could be themselves without fear of ostracization or judgment (Lewis, 1981).

Although Motley’s work elicits hope in the politics behind the Harlem Renaissance, Nathan Huggins asserts that it failed due to the limits of locality. Its representatives accepted race as a territory to forge a new African American identity; however, Huggins suggests their ‘patria and nativity’ as American citizens were more essential (Huggins, 1971). Conversely, David Levering Lewis attributes the renaissance’s failings to the 'wide, ambitious, and delusional striving' of the intellectuals. Lewis describes the workings of Alain Locke's anthology: its thirty-four Afro-American contributors (four were white) included almost all the future Harlem Renaissance regulars—an incredibly small band of artists, poets, and writers upon which to base Locke's conviction that the race's 'more immediate hope rests in the revaluation by white and black alike of the Negro in terms of his artistic endowments and cultural contributions, past and prospective' (Lewis, 1981). To suppose that a few superior people, who would not have filled a Liberty Hall quorum or Ernestine Rose's 135th Street library, were to lead ten million Afro-Americans into an era of opportunity and justice seemed irresponsibly delusional.

Both critics conclude that African Americans turned to art during the 1920s because they were confined to placing second in their homeland. They were suffocating in white America, and art seemed to offer the only means of advancement where the color of one’s skin was not restrictive. The African American, excluded from ‘politics, education, from profitable and challenging areas of the professions, and brutalized by all American economic arrangements, adopted the arts as a domain of hope and an area of possible progress’ (Huggins, 1971).

Modern Reflections

Critics argue that it is Toni Morrison who succeeds in creating a three-dimensional African American protagonist. Jazz (1926) illustrates a character whose destiny is informed by her environment as well as her actions. She uses the backdrop of Harlem to inform a voice and sharp critique of the old while using it to inform the new. Morrison's message serves as a warning that progress is only possible when artists today speak the city's 'loud voice and make that sound human' (Morrison, 1992).