Aaron Douglas Essays (1154 words) - Harlem Renaissance,

Aaron Douglas Aaron Douglas People may ask, what other than a tornado can come out of Kansas? Well, Aaron Douglas was born of May 26, 1899 in Topeka, Kansas. Aaron Douglas was a Pioneering Africanist artist who led the way in using African- oriented imagery in visual art during the Harlem Renaissance of 1919- 1929. His work has been credited as the catalyst for the genre incorporating themes in form and style that affirm the validity of the black consciousness and experience in America. His parents were Aaron and Elizabeth Douglas. In 1922, he graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Fine Arts in Lincoln. Who thought that this man would rise to meet W.E.B. Du Bois's 1921 challenge, calling for the transforming hand and seeing eye of the artist to lead the way in the search for the African American identity. Yet, after a year of teaching art in Kansas City, Missouri, Douglas moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood in 1924 and began studying under German artist Winold Reiss. His mentor discouraged Douglas's penchant for traditional realist painting and encouraged him to explore African art for design elements would express racial commitment in his art. The young painter embraced the teachings of Reiss to develop a unique style incorporating African- American and black American subject matter. He soon had captured the attention of the leading black scholars and activists. About the time of his marriage on June 18, 1924, to Alta Sawyer, Douglas began to create illustrations for the periodicals. Early the following year, one of his illustrations appeared on the front cover of Opportunity magazine, which awarded Douglas its first prize for drawing. Also, in 1925, Douglas's illustrations were published in Alain Looke's survey of the Harlem Renaissance, The New Negro. Publisher Looke called Douglas a pioneering Africanist, and that stamp of praise and approval for the artist influenced future historians to describe Douglas as the father of Black American art. His fame quickly spread beyond Harlem, and began to mount painting exhibitions in Chicago and Nashville, among the numerous other cities, and to paint murals and historical narratives interpreting black history and racial pride. During the mid- 1920's, Douglas was an important illustrator for Crisis, Vanity Fair, Opportunity, Theatre Arts Monthly, Fire and Harlem. In 1927, after illustrating an anthology of verse by black poets, Caroling Dusk, Douglas completed a series of paintings for poet James Weldon Johnson's book of poems, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Douglas's images for the book were inspired by Negro Spirituals, customs of Africans and black history. The series soon to became among the most celebrated of Douglas's work. It defined figures with the language of Synthetic Cubism and borrowed from the lyrical style of Reiss and the forms of African sculpture. Through his drawings for the series, Douglas came close to inventing his own painting style by this combination of elements in his work. During this time, Douglas collaborated with various poets. It was also his desire to capture the black expression through the use of paint. He spent a lot of time watching patrons of area nightclubs in Harlem. Douglas said that most of his paintings that were captured in these particular nightclubs were mainly inspired through music that was played. According to Douglas, the sounds of the music was heard everywhere and were created mostly during the Harlem Renaissance by well-trained artists. Douglas's work was looked upon by most critics as a breath of fresh air. His work symbolized geometric formulas, circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares became the dominant design motifs for Douglas. It was in Douglas's series of paintings called God Trombones that Douglas first expressed his commitment through the use of geometric shapes for Black artists. The faces and limbs in these series of paintings are carefully drawn to reveal African features and recognizable Black poses. In God's Trombones, Douglas achieved his mastery of hard- edge painting using symbolized features and lines. Through his use of these things he was able to bring to life the stiffness in the figures which symbolized Art Deco. But, unlike the decorative programs that exist in Art Deco, most of Douglas's work capitalized on the movement that was influenced by the rhythms of

Resolving Both Passive Construction and Verbosity

Resolving Both Passive Construction and Verbosity Resolving Both Passive Construction and Verbosity Resolving Both Passive Construction and Verbosity By Mark Nichol Writers often unconsciously construct a sentence in which the key information appears at the tail of the sentence. Many, too, take insufficient care to avoid wordiness. All too frequently, readers stumble across sentences that suffer from both problems. In this post are three examples of sentences that are both passive and verbose. The discussion that follows each describes the problems, and revisions demonstrate solutions. Note that passive construction is not always a malady to be remedied (it can effectively emphasize a point) and verbosity is not necessarily bad (wordiness can be employed for effect or to clarify an ambiguity), but the careful writer always chooses to retain such features only after consideration. 1. At this time, an economic downturn is not anticipated by most established business plans. Notice that in each of these examples, the sentence ends with the syntax â€Å"(verb) by (noun phrase).† However, the sentence is usually improved if a noun phrase relegated to this position supplants the original subject, as here: â€Å"At this time, most established business plans do not anticipate an economic downturn.† Further improvement results by omitting the extraneous introductory phrase: â€Å"Most established business plans do not anticipate an economic downturn.† 2. Relocation of buildings could eventually be implemented by property owners. â€Å"Relocation of buildings† is a valid subject, but actors, rather than people, places, or things acted on, best fill the role: â€Å"Property owners could eventually implement relocation of buildings.† Here, the sentence is rendered more concise by converting the nominalization (verb turned noun) back to a verb and omitting what is now a superfluous verb: â€Å"Property owners could eventually relocate buildings.† 3. The major contribution to increased efficiency was achieved by the team. Again, whenever possible, begin a sentence by first naming the actors rather than the acted upon: â€Å"The team achieved a major contribution to increased efficiency.† Here, too, the sentence can be truncated by converting one part of speech to another and jettisoning unnecessary words; in this case, increased is transmogrified from an adjective to a verb, the weak verb achieved is eliminated, and the excessive elaboration â€Å"a major contribution to† is deleted as well: â€Å"The team significantly increased efficiency.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid15 Great Word GamesInspiring vs. Inspirational