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‘AARON DOUGLAS’ WILL OPEN JAN. 18 AT FRIST CENTER

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NASHVILLE, TENN. — On Friday, January 18, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts will open “Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist,” the first nationally touring retrospective devoted to the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance.

Featuring nearly 90 paintings, murals, book and magazine illustrations by Aaron Douglas (1899–1979), this exhibition is especially significant for Nashville, where Douglas spent the last 30 years of his life as the founding chairman of the art department at historically black Fisk University. On view through April 13, the exhibition also features several works by Douglas’s contemporaries and students.

In conjunction with “Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist,” the Frist Center has organized “Fisk University’s Art Faculty: The Legacy of Aaron Douglas,” on view January 11–May 11, in the Conte Community Artists Gallery. With works by current and former members of Fisk University’s art department, the exhibition focuses on Douglas’s impact on the local art community.

“The Frist Center is honored to bring this important exhibition to Nashville and to provide an opportunity to deepen our awareness and appreciation of one of America’s most important artists who lived in our own community,” says Frist Center Executive Director Susan H. Edwards, PhD. “We are particularly thrilled to have the Fisk Jubilee Singers perform here as a part of our opening weekend. This exhibition promises to be a broad celebration of Aaron Douglas, his legacy at Fisk and his role in modern American art.”

Throughout his career, Douglas projected a dignified voice of both opposition and aspiration through his powerful imagery. In a distinct style based on silhouetted figures and fractured space, he created images that evoke the harsh realities of African American life as well as hopes for a better future.

Frist Center Curator Katie Delmez notes, “Like other participants in the Harlem Renaissance and adherents to the notion of ‘the New Negro,’ Aaron Douglas wanted to embrace the culture and heritage — both good and bad — that are unique to African Americans. Douglas captured the spirit of the times when he wrote to his friend, poet Langston Hughes, ‘let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it.’”

The Frist Center is at 919 Broadway. For more information, www.fristcenter.org or 615-244-3340.