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Street Life, Harlem

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@ Smithsonian American Art Museum

Description

The New York Amsterdam News reported in 1939 on the crowds gathering at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. The reporter described the "cock-eyed hats, perched at crazy angles on . . . shiny hair" and skirts "a tantalizing fraction of an inch below their knees" (Powell, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson, 1991). In Street Life, Harlem, William H. Johnson portrayed an elegant couple dressed "to the nines" for an evening on the town. Style, as much as skin color, was a mark of pride among many African Americans who had come of age during the Harlem Renaissance, but the flamboyant appearance of zoot-suiters inflamed racial tensions long after swing music and the jitterbug had been absorbed into American popular culture."I am feeling . . . that I would like my own homeland next, as I know of no better country to inspire me . . ." Letter from the artist, 1938, in Powell, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson, 1991
Type:
Image
Format:
Oil On Plywood
Rights:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation
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Record Contributed By

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution