Plunging Into the Very Depths of the Souls of Our People: The Life and Art of Aaron Douglas

Abstract

Visual artist Aaron Douglas is widely recognized as an important figure in African American art history. Recent journal articles, exhibitions and exhibition catalogs, and one monograph have begun to catalog his work and offer some biographical information. Yet, the richness of his life and work has yet to be documented. Douglas stands as an example of the complexities of African and American representation and identity formation in the United States from the early twentieth century into the present. His multiple roles as visual artist and storyteller, teacher to younger artists, and active public intellectual provide contexts through which to expand upon and complicate scholarship on Douglas, specifically, and American culture and history more generally.