During these dark times slaves had no way of expressing themselves openly so in fear of being punished they had to secretly come up with new ways to hold on to their culture. Under western imperialism they were assimilated to the western customs. So things such as new ways of living, faith, and cultural customs were shifted for them. In this process of assimilation, the slaves with the little bit of culture they still had in them found a way to Africanize whatever they touched, whether it had been food, music or faith. So within this state of oppression they were able to survive and make it through.

Post slavery when they began to migrate from the south to the more industrial areas a beautiful movement ignited a flame that inspired African Americans to return to their ways before colonization. That movement was the New Negro Movement/ Harlem Renaissance and one of the ways in which they felt they would be able to root themselves again were through the modes of art making. Rather it had been through music, fashion, painting, sculpting etc. The idea was to turn away from the westernized style of art making and turn to the ways in which their ancestors had practiced. Later there became more groups/movements that focused on this idea more acutely but during this time majority of the African American Artist were aiming to reclaim the African aesthetic. I have taken the time to research different artworks by different artists to give the viewer a better understanding of what this reclamation looks like, so this Exhibition is meant to navigate the viewer through the different ways in which African American artists took to reclaim the African aesthetic.