Community of Graphic Novelists Research Paper

Introduction

The community of graphic artists is rather old. Since the day, when people invented cave art, the pictures that were supposed to render a specific message have been in use as one of the primary means of communicating an idea to someone.

The inventions of the 21^st century have opened an entire pool of opportunities for artists: learning to draw has become accessible with video lessons and tutorials of all kinds. As a result, modern African American graphic novelists reside in the sanctuary of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Smithsonian American Art Museum para. 2), the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit Institute of Arts para. 1), etc. and represent a rather mixed yet very large community.

Annotated Bibliography

Katz, Wendy. “Robert S. Duncanson, Race, and Auguste Comte’s Positivism in Cincinnati.” African American Studies 53.1 (2014), 79–115. Print.

It will be safe to say that the tradition of the African Amrican art stems from the 19^th century, when Robert S. Duncanson defined the very essence of the phenomenon and embraced the idea of reconciling with nature in his works. The conflict of nature vs. nurture would later on become the trademark of the works made by the members of the African American painters community and its key tradition.

The second yet nonetheless essential tradition of the African American graphic art concerns its folk roots. A range of Black painters chose what is identified as folk painting and represents a challenge to the style-over-substance approach, which is currently cultivated and encouraged among American and European artists. This peer reviewed source will help identify the major stages in the evolution of the African American art.

Agnello, Richard. “Race and Art: Prices for African American Painters and Their Contemporaries.” Journal of Black Studies 41.1(2010), 56–70.

The incorporation of religious themes can be viewed as another feature that is characteristic of the African American artists and their approach towards painting. In the context of any other realm, such elements as religion related themes and the idea of returning to nature might seem somewhat incompatible; however, in the African American paintings, these two concepts supplement each other perfectly; the unique air of spirituality, which every single artwork made by the member of the African American painters community is a graphic example of.

At the same time, these works create the premises for an introspective into the viewer’s self and the possibility for a spiritual growth through locating balance between nature and nurture and the reconciliation with the former. Another trustworthy resource, this article will allow for a deeper insight onto the cultural implications of the African American art.

Target Demographics and Issue

The three above-mentioned features of the African American graphic artists both make their community unique and help the rest of the members of the American society get in touch with the Black culture, embracing its rich and incredibly powerful imagery, vast and significant concepts and unbelievably deep philosophic framework that it lies on.

Since the current African American community of artists incorporates both a retrospective into the origin of the African American culture and the current tendencies of its development, it creates a specific continuity, the study of which will reveal more about the development of the African American art and its effect on art in a more general, global sense.

Identification

As far as the primary informants of the research are concerned, it will be reasonable to interview the African American young people, who have chosen art as their career and are now using Deviantart as the so-called “museum” for exhibiting their art works. In addition to interviews, an ethnographic analysis will be carried out to determine the influence of the previous African American graphic artists on the ones of the 21^st century.

Works Cited

Agnello, Richard. “Race and Art: Prices for African American Painters and Their Contemporaries.” Journal of Black Studies 41.1(2010), 56–70.

Detroit Institute of Arts. “The General Motors Center for African American Art.” DIA. 2014. Web.

Katz, Wendy. “Robert S. Duncanson, Race, and Auguste Comte’s Positivism in Cincinnati.” African American Studies 53.1 (2014), 79–115. Print.

Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Online Exhibitions.” Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery. 2014. Web.