1920 Jazz and the New Negro Movement

By 1920 “Jazz” became not only a musical term, but a stylist one.

European designers, who were influenced by the pioneering work of cubist painters, struggled to capture the spirit of modernism through the expression of jazz rhythms and motif.

The expression of jazz style in the design of popular communication in the 1920’s represents the first appearance of what can be considered a black inspired graphic design style. The jazz-era climate of relative freedom in the North created an environment for blacks to publish and design their own publication. During this “renaissance” Alian Locke, a distinguished African –American intellectual of his generation cited the emergence of the “new Negro” and declared that black culture was the appropriate source of inspiration and content for African – American artist.

One of the first designers to give graphic expression to this call was a European modernist, Winold Reiss who created African inspired logo types and titles for the book The New Negro. Young black artist, most notably Aaron Douglas, was encouraged by Reiss and Locke to expand the emerging modernist trends and lead the emerging New Negro Art and design movement.

African aesthetic in design of the 1920’s are seen in black-owned journals. The designers of these publications were often black artist, influenced by European cubist painters, who were in turn, influenced by African art. Artist such as Aaron Douglas one of the best of these artist/designers of the time, learned to recognize and resonate with the African in cubism. Douglas and other black designers had a unique opportunity to express black style in a world that was starved for fresh anti Victorian imagery.

Douglas shows the emergence of unique graphic design expression that combines the syntax of cubism with the forms of African art.