Aaron Douglas Sites

A 2016 article celebrating Black History Month highlighted this unique and little known WPA mural by artist Aaron Douglas: "The Harlem Branch of the Y.M.C.A., which is located at at 180 West 135th Street, contains an exquisite example (though in need of a thorough restoration) of a rare African-American contribution to the Works Progress Administration (WPA)... While much of the building has been renovated over the years, some of the Y.M.C.A.’s original artwork by Alfred Floegel and noted African-American artists William E. Scott and Aaron Douglas remain. One of the murals was designed by Aaron Douglas, an African-American painter and illustrator whose works appear in...

Aaron Douglas completed this four-panel mural, entitled Aspects of Negro Life, in 1934 through the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). At the time, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was the 135th Street branch of The New York Public Library.   A leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance, Douglas painted these murals to reflect African and African American history, the African American present, and his vision of a promising future. According to the Treasures of The New York Public Library website, "Among his best-known works, the four panels of Aspects of Negro Life are characteristic of Douglas's style, with graphically incisive...