Listen to Perspectives podcast on the Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem is one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods. It has existed in the public imagination as the heart of Black cosmopolitan artistic and cultural production since the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Perhaps that is why artists from around the world, such as Tsuguharu Foujita (artwork above), depicted the neighborhood and the people, places, and sounds that make it so memorable. In the case of most of the artists in this week’s lineup, Harlem is a place that they called home, which lends to the personable, intimate portraits of a block or a building as seen in The Block and Street Story Quilt. There is also a musicality present in the lively photographs of couples swing dancing or the carefully orchestrated pageantry in Norman Lewis’s painting or James Van der Zee’s photograph. Although Harlem only spans forty-five city blocks, artists who consider it as a muse have carried the neighborhood’s essence and likeness far and wide. 


Collection Highlights

Harlem As Muse

Art Links