Painters and Color

Feel free to get up and get close to see the details of paintings.

Aaron Douglass, 1898 - 1979

Based on clues in the painting determine what you think the title of the painting is.

Into Bondage, 1936Aaron Douglass

Based on clues in the painting determine what you think the title of the painting is.

Aspects of a Negro Life: From Slavery to Reconstruction, 1934Aaron Douglas

Lois Mailou Jones, 1905 - 1998

Ascent of Ethiopia, 1932Lois Mailou Jones

Using specific evidence explain the painting’s title.

Mob Victim (Meditation), 1932Lois Mailou Jones

Using specific evidence explain the painting’s title.

Norman Rockwell, 1894 - 1978

Blood Brothers (sketch), 1968

Blood Brothers, 1968

The Saturday Evening Post restricted the portrayal of blacks to showing them only in service industry jobs. This is a 1962 Rockwell quote:

"I was born a white Protestant with some prejudices that I am continuously trying to eradicate. I am angry at unjust prejudices in other people and myself."

And once we see his views on race we can see the Porter and the Beauty Queen in a different light.

His last painting for the Post was published in 1963, and he spent the next 10 years painting for Look magazine, where his work explored his interest in civil rights, poverty, and space exploration.

What are the “new kids” in this predominantly white neighborhood thinking, and feeling in this encounter?

New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967

The Problem We All Live With, 1964

What can we tell about the situation, and what was happening in the community?

What is happening in this painting?

Painting Title: Murder In Mississippi (Southern Justice), 1964

In 1964, three young civil rights workers—a 21-year-old black Mississippian, James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24—were murdered. They had been working to register black voters and had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested, imprisoned for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who beat and murdered them. No one was tried on the charge of murder. The words of the presiding federal judge, William Cox, give an indication of Mississippi's version of justice at the time: "They killed one ni---r, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved."