Toward a History of Modernism in Washington: The 1933 Display of Art by African Americans at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Gallery of Art

Abstract

Unlike previous displays of art by African Americans presented on the National Mall in 1929 and 1930 that were derived chiefly from shows organized by the Harmon Foundation in New York, the Smithsonian Institution’s 1933 Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists was a distinctly Washington affair. Carter G. Woodson’s Association for the Study of Negro Life and History sponsored the show, with contributions from Alain Locke, James A. Porter, and James V. Herring from Howard University, as well as Washington-based artists James Lesesne Wells and Loïs Mailou Jones. Taking place just as the New Deal art initiatives were being launched, the 1933 exhibition interjected Washington into ongoing debates regarding definitions of African American art and American Modernism during the interwar period.