Aaron Douglas

Song of The Towers (1934)

This work is part of a series of murals Douglas painted for the New York Public Library's Countee Cullen Branch that trace

African Americans' history from their origins in Africa.

Credit: Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture

• Into Bondage (1936)

African sculptures, jazz music, dance and geometric forms heavily influenced Douglas' patterned, hard-edged style.

Credit: Corcoran Gallery of Art/Associated Press

Archibald Motley• Blues (1929)

Blues represents the fusion of Africa and America in Paris. It shows a popular jazz club whose patrons, including members of the African diaspora from America, the Caribbean and francophone African countries, gather to dance and listen to the latest African American music.

Credit: Corcoran Gallery of Art/Associated Press

Winold Reiss• Harlem Rooftops• Interpretations of Harlem Jazz• Dawn in Harlem• Reiss believed that by picturing the honor, beauty, and dignity of all peoples, his art

could help break down racial prejudices and testify to what Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called the "unity of all creation." His wish was to use art to change the world.

• Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Winold was the son of Fritz Reiss, a painter trained at the Düsseldorf Academy, who made drawing and painting the German landscape and its peasants his life work. Fritz Reiss was his son's first teacher, but after that tutelage, Winold went to Munich where he attended both the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kunstakademie), studying with Franz von Stuck, and the School of Applied Arts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied with Julius Diez. He emigrated to America in 1913 and settled in New York City, where he quickly became well known for his strong, colorful graphic designs as well as for his modern commercial interiors.