Allegory

Allegory

According to Tate Modern, “Allegory in art is when the subject of the artwork, or the various elements that form the composition, is used to symbolize a deeper moral or spiritual meaning such as life, death, love, virtue, justice etc.” Allegory has been a mode of communication in art dating back to ancient civilizations. It has been used in art to impart symbolic meaning and moral lessons. Allegorical art reached its height during the Renaissance in Europe between the 14th and 17th century. Here you will find some African American artists who employ allegory.

The Banjo Lesson (1893) by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first African American art star. He was trained at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Académie Julian in Paris, a rarity for African Americans during the time he practiced art. On a tip from his doctor to take in some mountain air, Tanner traveled to North Carolina Appalachian Mountains where he saw the devastating condition Black people lived in. The Banjo Lesson is based on a photograph that Tanner took for Harper’s Young People in December 1893. The photograph was accompanied by a story by Ruth McEnery Stuart telling how the elder had given his grandson his most prized possession for Christmas, his banjo. The Banjo Lesson speaks about the cultural wealth of Black people by invoking a story about an elder who may have had little material wealth giving his progeny the riches of music. Though this painting was part of a series that depicts other everyday situations in Black households to discredit stereotypical imagery, The Banjo Lesson was Tanner’s most popular and was accepted into the Paris Salon. The painting is owned by Hampton University.

The Amistad Murals (1939) by Hale Woodruff 

Hale Woodruff studied at Harvard University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Académie Moderne and Académie Scandinave in Paris. He also taught at Atlanta University. The painting he is most known for, The Amistad Murals, was inspired by his time studying with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He was commissioned by Talladega College in Alabama to paint a mural for the Savery Library.  He decided to paint a scene of the slave uprising on the Amistad ship where 53 Africans who were captured into slavery freed themselves and killed the captors on the ship. His bold, muscular style made his mural a dynamic and action-packed painting that depicts the high energy that likely took place during the revolt. In a culture where stories of the horrific pain of slavery is told repeatedly, for Woodruff to depict this story was a shift in the thinking of enslaved people as passive and complicit in their own torture. Here is a narrative that depicts the strength and resolve of a people.

The Migration Series (1940 – 1941) by Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence started to study art as a student at Harlem Community Art Center when famed sculptor Augusta Savage was the director. He came of age as the Harlem Renaissance was dwindling. Savage secured a scholarship for Lawrence at the American Artists School and a paid position at the Works Progress Administration. From 1940 to 1941, Lawrence created the Migration Series, a 60-panel work that depicts the move of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the south to the north.  The people in the series are painted in an angular style and each painting employs the same colors, forming a connection between each painting in the series.  The artwork was created on the eve of World War II when the country would again be in need to Black labor in an industrial capacity. Not only does the series depict the migration, it contains a moral undertone by cautioning about disappointments faced in the north, but also instills hope. The artwork is jointly owned by the Phillips Collection and Museum of Modern Art.