Podcast Summary: "The Harlem Renaissance Surveyed at The Met"

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Episode Date: February 23, 2024
Guest: Denise Murrell, Curator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Episode Overview

This episode celebrates Black History Month by highlighting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s landmark exhibition, "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism." Host Alison Stewart welcomes curator Denise Murrell to discuss the first major New York museum survey of the Harlem Renaissance in four decades. The conversation explores the movement’s nationwide and international scope, the challenges of curating such an exhibit, collaborations with Black families and institutions, and the drive to elevate under-recognized artists.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Defining the Harlem Renaissance (01:32 – 03:12)

• Denise Murrell frames the Harlem Renaissance as "an explosion of creativity" initiated in the mid-1920s, continuing through the 1940s, and states:

  "It was the first African American led movement of modern art and the first time that, in a broad-based way, Black American artists were also situated within international modernism." (01:52)

• The movement was interconnected with literary figures (Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke) and jazz culture, emerging as Black communities grew through the Great Migration.

Transatlantic and Nationwide Impact (03:12 – 05:06)

• Murrell emphasizes the Harlem Renaissance as both a "nationwide movement" and an international phenomenon.
• Artists from New York, Chicago, and beyond participated, with many spending significant time in Europe (especially France), seeing themselves as peers of artists like Picasso and Matisse.
• Quote:

  "They very much saw themselves as part of international modernism... and wanted to be seen as the peers of European modernists like Picasso, Matisse." (04:17)

Historical Context at The Met & Exhibition Challenges (05:06 – 08:56)

• The Met’s previous major Harlem-centric exhibition, "Harlem On My Mind" (1969), is discussed as a cautionary tale for its exclusion of Black painters and sculptors and outside perspective.
• Murrell notes:

  "The well-deserved critique of that exhibition, which was essentially... totally from the perspective of people from outside the community. There were no African American painters or sculptors." (06:44)

• The controversy, however, helped revive interest in James Van Der Zee’s photography. The new exhibit features Van Der Zee’s newly acquired works from this archive.

Acquiring and Collecting Black Art (09:34 – 11:17)

• Murrell sheds light on why substantial works were sourced externally, from HBCUs and Black families, rather than from the Met’s own collections:

  "The Met... essentially wasn't very interested in that work until recent decades... My position is that you can't really have a complete collection of American art Pre 1950 or even international modern art if you don't have very significant holdings by the Harlem Renaissance artists." (10:34)

• The importance of physically visiting HBCUs and consulting with families, owing to limited online archives, is highlighted.

The Story of Laura Wheeler Waring’s Art (11:37 – 16:37)

• Murrell details her relationship with the family of artist Laura Wheeler Waring, a pioneering Harlem Renaissance painter:
  • Waring created influential magazine covers and a celebrated portrait of Marian Anderson.
  • The Met team worked with her great-nieces over several years to study, conserve, and exhibit five family-held portraits.
• Memorable moment:

  "It's kind of like what we, who, you know, become art historians want to do in art history. Seeing all these magnificent paintings that have never been published in many cases before." (13:38)

• One of Waring's portraits is featured on the cover of the exhibition catalog, with the family’s works generating significant public and press interest.

Public Engagement and the Exhibition’s Importance (16:44 – 17:29)

• The show’s extended five-month run (until July 28th) is designed to maximize public engagement citywide.
• Murrell articulates the exhibit’s broader relevance:

  "It's this part of the history and the art history of African Americans, but also just American history. In the same way, we wouldn't think about American music without thinking about jazz. It's a gaping hole to not be thinking about the art of these artists as we're thinking about Hopper and Stieglitz and the other better known names." (17:10)

Notable Quotes

• On the Exhibition’s Ambition:
  "The Met was the one museum that could bring together all the disparate threads – the nationwide aspect... but also the international side." (07:12)
• On Institutional Gaps:
  "You can't really have a complete collection of American art pre-1950 or even international modern art if you don't have very significant holdings by the Harlem Renaissance artists." (10:49)
• On the Rediscovery of Waring’s Art:
  "We went back with conservation with a conservation team from the MET... seeing these dozens of paintings. It's kind of like what we... want to do in art history." (13:40)
• On Reassessing American Art:
  "It's a gaping hole to not be thinking about the art of these artists as we're thinking about Hopper and Stieglitz and the other better known names." (17:13)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:04 – Introduction to Black History Month & the Met’s Harlem Renaissance survey
• 01:32 – Defining the Harlem Renaissance’s time, place, and meaning
• 03:12 – Transatlantic connections and national breadth of the movement
• 05:06 – The Met’s history: from "Harlem On My Mind" to present day
• 09:34 – Collecting art from Black institutions and families; institutional priorities
• 11:37 – Laura Wheeler Waring’s legacy and her family's contributions to the exhibition
• 16:44 – Exhibit duration and public outreach mission
• 17:13 – Closing reflection on the necessity of including Harlem Renaissance artists in the American art canon

Episode Takeaways

• The Met’s exhibition corrects decades of underrepresentation and offers a significant re-contextualization of the Harlem Renaissance as a foundational part of American and global modernism.
• Personal relationships with families of artists and HBCUs were crucial to assembling the show, illustrating ongoing challenges in Black art preservation and recognition.
• The episode makes clear that the inclusion of Harlem Renaissance art is essential to any complete narrative of American visual culture, much as jazz is to American music.

For more details and to experience these works firsthand, listeners are encouraged to visit “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” at The Met, open through July 28, 2024.