Aaron Douglas’s Black Skyscrapers
Date: Friday, January 28, 2022
Time: 7–8pm
Location: The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue
As a technology for envisioning the city and its masses, the early skyscraper was a key site where Black people positioned themselves within the landscape of modernity. Adrienne Brown, a University of Chicago associate professor and author of The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race, will address the skyscraper-centric images of Aaron Douglas, one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. In a talk that ties together two current exhibitions—Aerial Vision, in our galleries, and The Harlem Renaissance, online—Brown will consider the multiple forms of urban belonging that the skyscraper suggested to African-American artists in the early 20th century.
This event is presented as part of The Harlem Renaissance at 100: Perspectives and Possibilities, January 27 and 28, co-organized by The Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab and The Wolfsonian–FIU.
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