Jazz, Art, and Modernity: The Black Experience
Born from spirituals and blues, jazz continued the African American tradition of storytelling through music and coexisted with impactful cultural booms such as the New Negro movement. Jazz and jazz culture were original, ushering in a sense of modernity, and transgressive, actively clashing with the law and Prohibition in the 1920s and ’30s. Eventually, its impact expanded beyond the US, reaching international audiences and influencing not only future generations of musicians, but all artists. This image gallery, an extension of the MFA’s “Art and Jazz” gallery, one of six spaces in “Stories Artists Tell: Art of the Americas, the 20th century,” presents works inspired by jazz’s rhythm, stories, and expression—all depicting and celebrating the experiences of Black Americans in the first half of the 20th century.
Compiled and written by Christiana Larracuente, Decorative Arts Trust IDEAL Intern, Art of the Americas.
Oil on canvas. Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund. © Estate of Norman W. Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY.
Norman Lewis, Harlem Jazz Jamboree, 1943
Fully immersed in jazz’s creative community, Norman Lewis bridged music and visual art in his work. In Harlem Jazz Jamboree, he brings a New York City nightclub to life by depicting its abstract and physical elements alike: instruments, expressive facial features, and vibrant reds and blues that imitate club lighting. By painting both Black and white figures, Lewis reflects the realities of jazz culture and makes a clear distinction in roles: Black musicians, at the center of the composition, drive the creative process, while the white audience, dotting the sides of the canvas, observes.
Patinated plaster. The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection.
Augusta Christine (Fells) Savage, Portrait Head of John Henry, about 1940
As a Black woman, Augusta Savage overcame numerous obstacles in her career, advocating for herself and other Black artists in the process. Her Portrait Head of John Henry is part of an emergence of naturalistic portrayals of Black men in the middle of the 20th century. Black men were often stereotyped and caricatured, but Savage’s work is a realistic and dignified depiction. As America modernized and jazz became synonymous with US culture, artists like Savage catalyzed a shift in the perception of Black people: where they were once parodied, they started to be humanized.
Glazed porcelain with sgraffito decoration. The John Axelrod Collection. Reproduced with permission.
Viktor Schreckengost for Cowan Pottery Studio, Jazz Bowl, designed 1930
The decorations that adorn Viktor Schreckengost’s Jazz Bowl capture the excitement of New York City nightlife in 1930, which was often viewed as scandalous due to its opposition to Prohibition and sexualized dancing in clubs. Schreckengost made the bowl for Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband, future president Franklin D. Roosevelt, was campaigning against the alcohol restrictions of Prohibition. Schreckengost’s bowl allowed white patrons like the Roosevelts to bring exhilarating jazz culture into their genteel homes.
Oil on canvas. Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation and Museum purchase with funds by exchange from the M. and M. Karolik Collection. © Stuart Davis / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Stuart Davis, Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style, 1940
Jazz is a Black art form, but it has influenced Black and white artists alike. One of those white artists, Stuart Davis, immersed himself in jazz culture while living in New York’s Greenwich Village, where many other artists—like Davis’s friend Beauford Delaney—shared similar passions. In Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style, Davis uses abstract modernist styles and bold colors to capture the spontaneity and energy of jazz in paint. Expressive shapes emulate movement across the canvas, suggesting music, dancing, and wonder.
Silver. The Daphne Farago Collection. © Art Smith / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Art Smith, “Galaxy” neckpiece, about 1960
Jewelry maker Art Smith was perhaps the most prominent of many fine craftsmen operating out of Greenwich Village in the middle of the 20th century. Smith was known among contemporaries for his distinctive style—large-scale pieces brought to life through the movement of the human body. His “Galaxy” neckpiece, made for Cab Calloway’s sister Bernice Calloway Monroe, was crafted to wrap around the wearer’s neck, resembling planets along a curving line. With his futuristic aesthetics and dynamic jewelry designs, Smith was at home within the jazz community.
The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection. Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator.
Beauford Delaney, Greene Street, 1940
Beauford Delaney’s Greene Street combines the artist’s love of jazz, his nightlife experiences, and his everyday life while living on Greene Street in Greenwich Village. Jazz spurred a strong artistic shift at midcentury: artists began to create more dynamic, expressive, and visually explosive works. Layered, somehow harmonic, yet visually dissonant, this mishmash of dynamic shapes and colorful palettes forms Delaney’s geometric representation of his neighborhood.
The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.
Archibald Motley, Cocktails, about 1926
Archibald Motley’s Cocktails evokes the sophistication of Black culture and glamour of Black women in the US at the beginning of the 20th century. By showing a group of well-dressed women enjoying alcoholic drinks—illegal during Prohibition—in an elegant room, Motley opposes previous assumptions of Black culture being a monolith and flips preconceived stereotypes on their head.