Jazz Age Culture

"In Zürich in 1915, losing interest in the slaughterhouses of the world war, . . . we searched for an elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the furious folly of those times." (from Hans Arp, "Dadaland," 1948)

"The exhibition of the new art from Europe dropped like a bomb. Before the people could gain their breath, some prune-fattened authorities of the old regime at once hurled the pits and stones of their wrath and contempt against the cubists." (from an Oscar Bleumner article in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work, 1913)

"In iterature, in art, in music--the post-war theme is similar: abandon tradition, experiment with the unknown, change the rules, dare to be different, innovate, and above all, expose the sham of western civilization." (from Steven Kreis, "The Age of Anxiety," 2000)

(NOTE: Good examples of art can also be found scattered throughout the
various sections of this webpage and on the previous jazz age page.)

• Cubism--covers Picasso and Braque. This lesson plan on The American Avant-Garde 1904-1920 explains how European cubist art freed American artists to experiment with expression and abstraction. Looking for Miles Davis: . . . African American Design Aesthetic--includes a section on the influence of African art on the development of modernist art. See also Modernism and Modernity. For more on the modernist art and jazz connection, see also A Blues Aesthetic.

• Post-Impressionist and Expressionist Painting--View Cezanne's Landscapes and more Monte Sainte-Victoire paintings.  View Van Gogh's Starry Night. Here are 12 Kandinsky paintings followed by a biography. For more Expressionist Art, go to my Expressionist Art Gallery webpage.

• Armory Exhibition 1913--view Armory Show. Here is a more detailed treatment of various aspects of the 1913 Armory Show--click on the icons at the bottom of the page. See also New York Dada. View large image of Duchamp's Nude Descending the Stairs; more Duchamp images.

• Salvador Dali--see his most famous surrealist painting: Persistance of Memory. See also Dali's Double Image Paintings. Many Dali images here.

• Art in 1925: The Year in Review--a helpful survey; click on each of the thumbnails. See also my Art Tours web page for paintings by Georgia O'Keefe, Frieda Kahlo, Remedios Varos, and others.

• Marie Laurencin--Try these paintings: Femme au Turbanand Portrait of a Girl in a Hat. Here are two early paintings: Artemis & Bacchante; another Artemis. Here are several more Laurencin paintings and about a dozen images.

• Tamara de Lempicka--Lempicka biography. Here are three of her famous Art Deco women: Self-Portrait (Girl in a Green Bergatti); Portrait of Ira P. Here are five more paintings. For the most comprehensive sites (SLOW-LOADING), click Lempicka (1) or Lempicka (3)--click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. View 18 images--some new ones--and 15 images. Here is a helpful essay: An Artist Whose Portraits Symbolize the Wild Ride of the Jazz Age.

• Pablo Picasso--go to the section below on Gertrude Stein and Picasso.

• Harlem Renaissance Artists & Art: Harlem Renaissance--good introduction. Here are six pages of Harlem Renaissance posters and art prints.   Read Art of the Harlem Renaissance--commentary on modernism and black art.  See also Harlem Renaissance--images and brief introductions to Douglas, Jones, Johnson, and Bearden. Jazz: An American Muse --note the definition of jazz art.

• Lois Mailou Jones: Jones biography with image/commentary on "Les Fetiches" [the masks]. Contrast with Jardin du Luxembourg [the garden of Luxembourg]. View her most famous painting Les Fetiches and read some commentary; here is another analysis of Les Fetiches. Here is Ethiopian Boy and more information on Jones. See Ascent of Ethiopia and other pictures: Jones (2). View two illustrations for Senghor's book of poems. Another Jones biography (2).

• William Johnson: Biography/many images. See also Mom Alice, c.1944 and these images: Seated Woman, I Baptize Thee, Children Playing London Bridge, and Self-Portrait with Bandana. Many more Johnson images. Here is A Journey through Art with William Johnson. View 100s of William Johnson paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

• Jacob Lawrence: Jacob Lawrence --short biography/image. Meet Jacob Lawrence --excellent site with many links. Here are 21 Lawrence images--click on "Image Gallery." Here are many good Lawrence images. View Lawrence's Dust to Dust (The Funeral). See also his Toussaint L'Ouverture series.   Here are three pages of images with brief commentary: Jacob Lawrence. See Jacob Lawrence at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

• Aaron Douglas: Aaron Douglas --short biography. View these Douglas paintings: The Creation, Rise, Shine for Thy Light Has Come, Sahdji (Tribal Women), and The Unknown.

• Archibald J. Motley, Jr.: Two interesting papers on Motley's paintings: Blues and Mending Socks and The Development of Archibald John Motley, Jr.: From the Portrait Period to the Chicago Urban Scene.

• Romare Beardon: Romare Beardon--somewhat later jazz artist.

"The uncertainties of 1919 were over--there seemed little doubt about what was going to happen--America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history. . . . The whole golden boom was in the air--its splendid generosities, its outrageous corruptions. . . ." (from F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up)

". . . the new Klan was going to mean business. And that soon meant expanding its list of enemies to include Asians, immigrants, bootleggers, dope, graft, night clubs and road houses, violation of the Sabbath, sex, pre- and extra-marital escapades and scandalous behavior. The Klan, with its new mission of social vigilance, soon had organizers scouring the nation . . . ." (from Southern Poverty Law Center, "100 Years of Terror")

• Baseball:
  
  • Baseball in the 1920s--good links to Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig; 1919 World Series; The Negro Leagues.
  • The Black Sox--read how the 1919 World Series was fixed. More here: 1919 World Series.
  • How the fix was set up and Shoeless Joe Jackson's Virtual Hall of Fame.
  • Negro Leagues Players; more on Andrew Rube Foster.
  • The Giants and the Color Barrier--good history of the formation of the Negro leagues.
  • The Babe Ruth Times: Constructing a Legend since 1919--1920s hero.
  • Ty Cobb Made his 4000th Hit.

• More Achieving Women:
  
  • Isadora Duncan--famous free-form dancer. More information on Duncan and Duncan(2).
  • Jeanette Rankin--first woman elected to U.S. Congress.
  • Jane Addams--famous social worker/peace activist/Nobel prize winner. Another Addams biography.
  • Bessie Coleman or Bessie Coleman Stamp--good biography included. See also Amelia Earhart (1)--another famous aviator--and Amelia Earhart (2).
  • Coco Chanel--premier fashion designer from 1920s-1950s.

• Violence and Miscarriages of Justice:
  
  • Sacco and Vanzetti--excellent site; see also Sacco and Vanzetti (2).
  • Sacco and Vanzaetti Controversy--with many links.
  • Leopold and Loeb (2)--famous crime and "trial of the decade." See also Leopold and Loeb (3)
  • The Monkey Trial--Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan square off at the Scopes Trial.
  • The Scopes/Monkey Trial.
  • Clarence Darrow--the famous Monkey Trial lawyer

• Racial Violence and the KKK:
  
  • Lynching in America: Carnival of Death--excellent introduction, with many links.
  • KKK: A Hundred Years of Terror--excellent essay prepared by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
  • Anti-Lynching Crusade of Ida B. Wells; more about Ida B. Wells.
  • Lynching--more on its history and practice
  • The Politics of Sex, 1923--interesting essay linking Bessie Smith, her blues singing, sex roles and race relations, and the rise of the KKK with its sexist/racist prejudices; includes links to Women of the Klan.
  • The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
  • Rosewood Massacre of 1923--long report on White Florideans attacking black residents of Rosewood.
  • Trial of the Scottsboro Boys--U of Missouri (Kansas City) professor tells the shocking story of injustice.
  • Scottsboro Boys and Famous American Trials: Scottsboro Boys--many links.
  • Langston Hughes on Scottsboro--several poems.
  • Chicago Race Riots of 1919.
  • Ku Klux Klan--history of this infamous organization.

• The 1929 Crash:
  
  • The Crash of 1929--very readable essay with 1920s illustrations and popular lyrics.
  • Looking Back on the Crash of "29--read actual newspaper coverage of the catastrophe.

• World War I & Aftermath:
  
  • World War I Ended with the Treaty of Versailles--compact overview of the war.
  • World War I--brief history, particularly of black soldiers and their jazz bands.
  • Art of the First World War--100 paintings by famous artists depicting the horrors of World War I.
  • Lost Poets of the Great War--short biographies and selected poems of Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg and others. Good links to War Chronology and the Human Cost (casualty numbers).
  • Siegfried Sassoon--this site pairs his war poems with moving war paintings.
  • Aftermath: When the Boys Come Home is a good site about a different "lost generation"--not Hemingway & Co., but the generation of young men who went to war--select topics in left column (good selection of poetry there also).
  • Anthem for a Doomed Youth--this excellent site has many war writers, historical items, posters, and first-rate links at the end.
  • The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century--PBS history with many links.
  • Women and War--many links on women's activities during and for World War I.
  • The American Foreign Legion: Black Soldiers of the 93d in World War I --racial discrimination in U.S. military.
  • A Chronology of African American Military Service: From WWI through WWII--good overview, with timeline.
  • Encyclopedia of the First World War--links to many entries (excellent selection of art, illustrators, and cartoonists of the war).
  • Pacifism vs. Patriotism in Women's Organizations in the 1920s--as usual, there is more than one response to war.
  • World War I and Post-war Society--chronicle of the African American soldier in World War I.