Into Bondage

1936

Aaron Douglas

Painter, American, 1899 - 1979

The spruce-green silhouette of a broad-shouldered man standing among palm fronds looks up at a faint red star against a field of green circles radiating out from the horizon in this abstracted vertical painting. The scene is made with mostly flat areas of color to create silhouettes in shades of slate and indigo blue, lemon-lime and pea green, plum purple, and brick red. To our right of center, the man faces our left in profile. His eye is a slit and he has tight curly hair. The position of his feet, standing on a coffin-shaped, brick-red box, indicate his back is to us. He stands with legs apart and his arms by his sides. Terracotta-orange shackles around his wrists are linked with a black chain. A woman to our left, perhaps kneeling, holds her similarly shackled hands up overhead. A line of shackled people with their heads bowed move away from this pair, toward wavy lines indicating water in the distance. The water is pine green near the shore and lightens, in distinct bands, to asparagus green on the horizon. On our left, two, tall pea-green ships sail close to each other at the horizon, both titled at an angle to our right. Concentric circles radiate out from the horizon next to the ships to span the entire painting, subtly altering the color of the silhouettes it encounters. To our left, a buttercup-yellow beam shines from the red star in the sky across the canvas, overlapping the man’s face. Spruce-blue palm trees grow to our right while plum-purple palm fronds and leaves in smoke gray and blood red frame the painting along the left corners and edge. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, in black, “AARON DOUGLAS.”
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We glimpse the harrowing drama unfolding in this painting, as if we are crouching by the roots of the tropical foliage and peering through a space between the leaves. Our focus is on the anonymous silhouettes of men and women, their shackles more prominent than their features. They slouch toward waiting ships. We know the tragic outcome of their impending journey: enslavement in a distant country. A pulsating light on the horizon—a star—casts a bright beam on the large figure at center. Aaron Douglas, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, acknowledges his ancestors’ resilience and hope in the face of oppression.

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

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The spruce-green silhouette of a broad-shouldered man standing among palm fronds looks up at a faint red star against a field of green circles radiating out from the horizon in this abstracted vertical painting. The scene is made with mostly flat areas of color to create silhouettes in shades of slate and indigo blue, lemon-lime and pea green, plum purple, and brick red. To our right of center, the man faces our left in profile. His eye is a slit and he has tight curly hair. The position of his feet, standing on a coffin-shaped, brick-red box, indicate his back is to us. He stands with legs apart and his arms by his sides. Terracotta-orange shackles around his wrists are linked with a black chain. A woman to our left, perhaps kneeling, holds her similarly shackled hands up overhead. A line of shackled people with their heads bowed move away from this pair, toward wavy lines indicating water in the distance. The water is pine green near the shore and lightens, in distinct bands, to asparagus green on the horizon. On our left, two, tall pea-green ships sail close to each other at the horizon, both titled at an angle to our right. Concentric circles radiate out from the horizon next to the ships to span the entire painting, subtly altering the color of the silhouettes it encounters. To our left, a buttercup-yellow beam shines from the red star in the sky across the canvas, overlapping the man’s face. Spruce-blue palm trees grow to our right while plum-purple palm fronds and leaves in smoke gray and blood red frame the painting along the left corners and edge. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, in black, “AARON DOUGLAS.”

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Into Bondage, 1936

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned 1936 for the Hall of Negro Life, Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas;[1] possibly Wiley College, Marshall, Texas.[2] Joseph Mack [1920-1986]; sold to Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. [1952-1997], Washington, by 1987;[3] by gift and partial purchase 1996 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] A letter from Jesse O. Thomas and Alonzo J. Aden (General Manager and Curator of Exhibitions, respectively, of the Hall of Negro Life) to Aaron Douglas, dated 5 July 1936, hints that the Harmon Foundation gave financial support for the commission; copy in NGA curatorial files, and the Evans-Tibbs Collection, Vertical Files, NGA Library.
[2] According to Hilda Stewart Proctor, “The Aaron Douglasses Celebrate 25th Year,” clipping from an unidentified newspaper, about 18 August 1951; copy in NGA curatorial files, and the Evans-Tibbs Collection, Vertical Files, NGA Library.
[3] In a Condition and Treatment Report for the painting, prepared by Quentin Rankin (3 April 1987, Corcoran conservation records, in NGA Painting Conservation Department), Thurlow Evans Tibbs Jr. is specified as the owner.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1936

  • Texas Centennial Exposition, Lobby of the Hall of Negro Life, Dallas, 6 June - 29 November 1936, no catalogue.

1989

  • Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, Dallas Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Milwaukee Art Museum; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 3 December 1989 - 24 March 1991, unnumbered checklist.

1997

  • Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, Hayward Gallery, London; Arnolfini, Bristol; Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, Coventry; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 19 June 1997 - 14 February 1999, no. 19.

1999

  • Celebrating the Legacy: African American Art from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 30 July - 22 September 1999, no catalogue.

2002

  • Celebrating the Legacy: African American Art from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 10 January - 25 February 2002, no catalogue.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004 - 7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 27 August 2005 - 29 April 2007, checklist no. 91.

2007

  • Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, 8 September 2007 - 30 November 2008, unnumbered catalogue.

2009

  • American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2016

  • The Color Line: African-American Artists and Segregation, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, 2016-2017, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2018

  • Historias Afro-Atlanticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, 2018, no. 57, repro.

2020

  • Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2020 - 2021, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 16.

Bibliography

n.d.

  • Letters, Jessie O. Thomas and Alonzo J. Aden, Office of the United States Commissioner General, Texas Centennial Exposition to Aaron Douglas, 5 July 1936; Evans-Tibbs Archives, formerly Corcoran Gallery of Art Archives, now NGA Library, Washington.

1936

  • J. B. "Negro Art Works Being Displayed at Fair Exhibit [exh.review]." Dallas Morning News (28 June 1936): 2:4.

  • Tedford, Claude C. "Art Section Most Beautiful Part of Negro Building at Texas Centennial Exhibition [exh. review]." Associated Press (10 September 1936).

1938

  • Thomas, Jesse O. Negro Participation in the Texas Centennial Exposition. Boston, 1938: 25, 26, 27, 102, 129.

1971

  • Bontemps, Jacqueline. "The Life and Works of Aaron Douglas: A Teaching Aid for the Study of Black Art." M.A. Thesis, Fisk University, Nashville, 1971.

1989

  • Powell, Richard J. "From Renaissance to Realization, 1920-1950." In African American Artists, 1880-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection. Guy C. McElroy et al., eds. Exh. cat. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, D.C., 1989: 71 n. 3.

1990

  • Terry, Clifford. "African Impulse Milwaulkee Exhibit Reveals the Strong Legacy of Black Art [exh. review]." Chicago Tribune (28 October 1990): 16.

1991

  • Robinson, Jontyle Theresa. "Recent Exhibitions: Black Art: Ancestral Legacy [exh. review]." African Arts 24, no.1 (January 1991): 78-79.

1996

  • Lewis, Jo Ann. "Corcoran to be given African American Art." The Washington Post (8 May 1996): A:16.

  • Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. "Major Gift for the Corcoran." The Washington Times (10 May 1996): C:13.

  • Corcoran Day and Night 3, no.4 (July/August 1996): cover, repro., 2, repro., 5.

  • Lewis, Jo Ann. "A Fresh Coat of Paintings; Washington Collector Gives the Corcoran a New Focus [exh. review]." The Washington Post (14 September 1996): C:1.

1997

  • Murph, John. "The Evans-Tibbs Collection: Prints, Drawings and Photographs by African American Artists [exh.review]." New Art Examiner 24 (February 1997): 51.

  • Hendrickson, Paul. "The Legacy; Art Collector Thurlow Evans Tibbs Left Behind an Unforgettable Gift. And Some Unsettling Questions." The Washington Post (20 April 1997): G:7.

1998

  • Baker, Kenneth. "Black Renaissance; Legion of Honor Show Surveys Harlem's Artistic Zenith [exh. review]." San Francisco Chronicle (16 January 1998): D:1, repro.

  • Bonetti, David. "Black Studies: Harlem Renaissance at Legion of Honor [exh.review]." San Francisco Chronicle (1 February 1998): M:18, repro.

  • Powell, Richard J. "Art of the Harlem Renaissance." American Art Review 10, no. 2 (March-April 1998): 133, repro.

  • Iverem, Esther. "The Body Eclectic New Way of Seeing Things." The Washington Post (11 April 1998): B:1, repro.

  • Walsh, Daniella. "Riches of the Harlem Renaissance; LACMA Takes a Wide-Lens View of a Uniquely American Cultural Phenomenon [exh. review]." Orange County Register (23 August 1998): F:28.

1999

  • Heyd, Milly. Mutual Reflections: Jews and Blacks in American Art. Brunswick, New Jersey, 1999: 38, 39, repro.

2000

  • Smith, Rochelle, and Sharon L. Jones, eds. The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2000: after 86, repro.

  • Holt, Thomas C., and Elsa Barkley Brown, eds. Major Problems in African-American History. 2 vols. Boston, 2000: 1:cover, repro.

2001

  • Rochelle, Belinda. Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art. New York, 2001.

  • McNatt, Glenn. "The Works of Black Artists, Rooted in the Harlem Renaissance, Can be Seen in Local Galleries This Month [exh.review]." Baltimore Sun (25 December 2001): 1,F.

2002

  • Lewis, Jo Ann. "Painter Aaron Douglas, A Re-Renaissance Man; The Artist Gets His Due, Times Two, at Arena and the Corcoran." The Washington Post (13 January 2002): C4.

  • Badder, Susan. "Into Bondage." In A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Edited by Eleanor Heartney. London, 2002: 172, 200, repro., 201.

2005

  • Burgard, Timothy Anglin. "Aaron Douglas, Aspiration." In Masterworks of American Painting at the De Young. Edited by Timothy Anglin Burgard. San Francisco, 2005: 342, 344, repro.

2006

  • Maschal, Richard. "Strokes of Genius [exh. review]." The Charlotte Observer (1 October 2006): E:3, repro.

  • Shinn, Susan. "Viewing Masters: 'Encountering American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art' Opens at the Mint [exh. review]." Salisbury Post (12 October 2006): D:7.

2007

  • Bennett, Lennie. "The Coming of Age of American Art [exh. review]." St. Petersburg Times (18 February 2007): 8L, repro., 9L.

  • Emery, Mary Lou. Modernism, The Visual, and Caribbean Literature. Cambridge, England, 2007: 82, repro.

2008

  • Gopnik, Blake. "Points of Departure [exh. review]." The Washington Post (1 June 2008): M:7, Living and Arts, repro.

  • Bernier, Celeste-Marie. African American Visual Arts. Edinburgh, 2008: 82, repro.

  • May, Stephen. "Renaissance of a Modernist." ARTnews 107, no. 9 (October 2008): 146-149, 147, repro.

2009

  • Sadlier, Rosemary, et al. Black History: Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Toronto, 2009: 178, repro., 363.

2010

  • Barson, Tanya. "Introduction: Modernism and the Black Atlantic." In Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic. Edited by Tanya Barson and Peter Gorschluter. Exh. cat. Tate Liverpool, 2010: 11, repro.

2011

  • Wingate, Jennifer. "Aaron Douglas, Into Bondage." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 37, 246-247, 282, repro.

  • Jordan, Glenn. "Re-Membering the African-American Past: Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas and Black Art of the Harlem Renaissance." Cultural Studies: Theorizing Politics, Politicizing Theory 25, no. 6 (November 2011): 873, 874, 875, repro., 884.

  • Greenhalgh, Paul. Fair World: A History of World's Fairs and Expositions From London to Shanghai 1851-2010. Berkshire, 2011: 142, repro., 143.

2012

  • Welky, David, ed. American Between the Wars: 1919-1941: a documentary reader. Malden, Massachusetts, 2012: 52, 54, repro.

  • Parsons, Jim and David Bush. Fair Park Deco: Art and Architecture of the Texas Centennial Exposition. Fort Worth, 2012: 145, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: AARON DOUGLAS

Wikidata ID

Q20193037

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