An Art At Your Fingertips projecteated in collaboration with Mike

Reddy

• The Harlem Renaissance was essentially the flowering of aunique African-American culture.

• African-American writers, poets, artists,musicians and intellectuals found newways to express pride in their race and culture.

• Visual artists played a key role in creating depictions of theNew Negro. Their imagery featured bold colors arranged ina stylized fashion that portrayed educated, well-to-doAfrican-Americans dancing, making music, dining, orengaging in other pleasurable activities.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where African Americans migrated from southern parts of the United States north to New York (and to other urban areas and beyond). This period followed World War I and lasted until the beginning of the Great Depression.

Jazz, a genre of music, was also in full swing in the Harlem Renaissance period. Instruments used in Jazz include any assortment of: piano, trumpet, drums, double bass, guitar, and saxophone.

Romare Bearden1911-1988

• At the time, the School of Arts & Crafts was mostimportant for aspiring black artists.

• New government programs provided encouragement andfinancial incentives for the development of black artistshelping to start the career of Romare Bearden and others.

TRUMPET

(1911-1988) was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and moved with his family to Harlem, New York when he was a toddler. Bearden regarded himself as African American though he was born from multi-racial descent (African, Italian, and Cherokee Indian).

• His parents were very active in education and thearts movement. Often noteworthy musicians wereinvited to the house, and it was there as a child,that he observed the Harlem Renaissance artisticmovement.

• Graduating with a degree in education from NYUhe later served in the US army during World War IIand returned to Paris in 1950 to study art historyand philosophy at the Sorbonne..

• Romare Bearden created art that exemplified African Americanculture and people by the merging of abstract colors to depictbrown complexions, and including repetition through thephotostat process. He felt that popular art didn’t fully portrayAfrican Americans.

• Over Beardon’s lifetime, heworked in many types ofmedia including cartoons,oils, and collages.

• He emerged as a renownedcollagist and was describedas the “nation’s foremostcollagist.”

• In the later part of his art career, Bearden chose to work in collage ashis style combined abstract shapes of various materials with pictures.

• He also used a Photostat machine to replicate elements frommagazines or other sources.

• He loved music, especially Jazz. His later work in the 1960s included alarge body of art that thematically represented the Jazz music of earlyyears in Harlem.

Key Vocabulary

Collage: An artistic composition made of various materials (e.g., paper, cloth or wood) glued on surface in a deconstruction, reconstruction, or spontaneous process.Composition: The organization of elements in a work of art.Curvature: The act of curving or bending. One of the characteristics of a line.Proportion: The relationship in size of one part to the whole and of one part to another.Rule of Thirds: A technique used primarily in photography to improve composition.Scale: Relative size, proportion. Used to determine measurements or dimensions within a design work of art.Shape: A two-dimensional area or plane that may be open or closed, free-form or geometric. It can be found in nature or is made by humans.Spontaneous Collage: Choosing images, textures, and colors without thinking and judging. Theme: An idea based on a particular subject.

Step 1: All Grades• While listening to the jazz selection, paint what

is heard by spreading the paint over the entirepaper.

• Apply just a thin layer of paint, as it will only bethe background for the collage.

• Use the skewer to etch (or inscribe) emotions ormusical notes heard while listening to themusic.

• Set aside to dry.

• While paper is drying, think about building your musician(and instrument) from shapes that you know.

Step 3: Grades TK-11. Arrange the pre-cut face shape and torso (solid origami

paper) onto the painted background, if dry. Shapes can bechanged to look more natural.

1. Place the figure to the side rather than in the middle ofthe page to create a more interesting composition(rule of thirds).

3. Glue down torso anchoring it to the bottom edge of thepainted paper.

3. Glue head straight or tilted slightly.3. For facial features select different textures and patterns to

cut out an exaggerated nose, mouth, and ears.

6. For the eyes, select a photocopied eye andmake the second from the texture papers.

6. Arrange all features on the head and glue in place.

8. Cut out shapes for hair and hat fromremaining papers and textures (or frommagazines, if available). Glue in place.

8. Include embellishments: such as buttonsand ties or other textures on/or aroundthe musician.

Step 3: Grades: 2-5The Rule of Thirds is used to create an interesting composition:

• Divide any composition into thirds verticallyand horizontally.

• Place key elements of the image along the linesor the junction of the lines.

• Results in a more interesting and dynamiccomposition.

1. Begin the collage composition by making a curtain and stage:• Arrange the rectangles considering the rule of thirds.• Note: The rectangles can be changed to look more like a

curtain and stage.

2. When adding the musician and an instrument or avocalist, think of the artwork as a “snapshot” deciding ifthe image of the figure will be a close up or full body:• To ground a full body figure, feet should touch the stage.• Legs won’t show on a close up figure and stage

will appear behind the figure.3. In either case, the image should take up about

two thirds of the length of the paper.4. Select a dark pattern for the head and

cut a shape for the head.• Make it large enough so that

facial features can be added.

5. Decide how large the body needs to be so that it is in proportion to the size of the head.

6. Select papers for clothing. Cut shapes that you know from math such as rectangles or trapezoids, etc. to represent the torso, legs, feet, arms, and hands. Arrange the pieces so that the musician appears to be standing on the stage.

7. Planning the facial features: nose, mouth, ears, and eyes. What shapes can be used for the different features?

8. For the eyes, select a photocopied eye and make the second from the textured papers.

9. Decide what instrument the musician will play and thenselect paper for instruments (vocalists need microphones).

• Cut out shapes and position on musician so that it lookslike the figure is playing the instrument.

10.Cut out other shapes for hair, hats, and includeother embellishments: such as buttons and tiesor other textures on/or around the figure.

10.Glue all pieces in place.

Reflection1. What kinds of shapes did you use in making your collage portrait?

1. Did you feel like you were “painting with scissors” cutting shapesfrom textured papers to create your art?

2. Select something you like about your artwork and something youwould change?

1. Were you successful in using paper to create an abstract portraitof a Harlem Renaissance musician?

2. Does your collage remind you of those created by RomareBearden? Identify similar or different elements to support yourconclusion.

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