Ilana Horn: i went to the harlem renaissance exhibit at the met this weekend. highly recommend. this particular painting by winold reiss caught my attention...it's called TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS #EduSky www.nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/two-...

i went to the harlem renaissance exhibit at the met this weekend. highly recommend. this particular painting by winold reiss caught my attention...it's called TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS #EduSky www.nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/two-...

Two Public School Teacherswww.nyccivilrightshistory.org In March 1925, The Survey Graphic published a special issue.

the curator note said, "this double portrait became the focus of debate during a community meeting in Harlem, with some characterizing it as an inappropriate representation of Black aspiration"

i am FASCINATED by this and want to know more about the debate. do any edu-historians have resources? @ansleyerickson.bsky.social @jackschneider.bsky.social @jennbinis.bsky.social

At any rate these types of community discussion were not at all uncommon in the interwar years, though it's not clear when this discussion took place. These discussions were inspired by Soviet Proletkult. There's a hilarious poem by Kenneth Fearing satirizing the process.

The essays in the exhibition catalog might have more information. I did a quick search for keywords on Google books. (And you can sometimes flip through the catalog at the museum gift shop). www.google.com/books/editio...

The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernismwww.google.com Beginning in the 1920s, Upper Manhattan became the center of an explosion of art, writing, and ideas that has since become legendary. But what we now know as the Harlem Renaissance, the first movement...

thank you!!

Let's ask @mlobelart.bsky.social if he has suggestions!

I've been having issue with my Macbook syncing with Bluesky (I think it was a time zone issue), so I'm guessing no one saw my replies to this thread yesterday😪

I did finally see one this afternoon, Michael! Now I see the others. Thank you very kindly for your replies! And, for being willing to share your art historian's knowledge with us! I did find a little something that I posted lower in the thread. The threading on bsky is obscurant. So, here 'tis!

I will tag @johnedwinmason.bsky.social too, in case he has something to add. Even though he is rarely on Bluesky. John may reply next time he's here. In the meantime, Martha Jane Nadell's "Enter the New Negroes: Images of Face in American Culture," has something. www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

My rec is to email the museum.

thank you! that would have never occurred to me

They’re typically quite helpful and will provide bibliographic references too. Happy to help!

In this case, just to clarify, emailing the Met would probably be a more limited route, since the work is not in their collection; if you really want to look in more depth the Fisk University Galleries, which appear to own the work, might be the way to go www.fiskuniversitygalleries.org

Fisk University Gallerieswww.fiskuniversitygalleries.org

Done!

I haven't yet looked at the Met catalog, but there are two other sources that might be useful: Martha Jane Nadell's "Enter the New Negroes: Images of Race in American Culture" www.google.com/books/editio...

Enter the New Negroeswww.google.com With the appearance of the urban, modern, diverse "New Negro" in the Harlem Renaissance, writers and critics began a vibrant debate on the nature of African-American identity, community, and history. ...

And Kobena Mercer's book on Alain Locke & the Visual Arts www.google.com/books/editio...

Alain Locke and the Visual Artswww.google.com A fresh perspective on the influential critic, offering new ways of understanding the art of the Harlem RenaissanceAlain Locke (1885-1954), leading theorist of the Harlem Renaissance, maintained a lif...

What an extraordinary image

it's even more stunning in person... if you can get to the met, highly recommend the whole show

extraordinary 🙏🏼 for sharing this

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