Van Alen Gallery:

The African American Photography of Carl Van Vechten:  The Legacy Years

      

                                                         Josephine Baker                      James Earl Jones                         Alvin Ailey                               

This exhibit features a selection of 58 photographs focusing on the many African American artists, writers, and performers that Carl Van Vechten photographed from 1940 to 1962.  Included in the exhibition are images of such important figures as Alvin Ailey, Marian Anderson, Josephine Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne, Leontyne Price, Billy Strayhorn and Ethel Waters.  These artists essentially represent the legacy of those figures who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance in the earlier part of the 20th century.  Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a writer and music critic who took up photography in 1931 after the Leica 35mm camera was introduced.  The Redwood collection of over 700 Van Vechten photographs was a gift of the estate of Richard Banks, a personal friend of Carl Van Vechten.

(all photos by Carl Van Vechten.  Used here by permission of the Van Vechten Trust)

 

Rovensky Room Display Cases 

Concurrent with this photography display there will be a display in the Rovensky Room display cases titled The Harlem Renaissance:  Poetry, Prose, and Politics.  This display will present published works from the Redwood collections by various authors of the Harlem Renaissance.