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African American Music

Paintings Featuring African American Musicians

Historically, people in the African Diaspora were treated by European painters as props or scenery rather than as subjects, so portraits of African American musicians, much like other markers of status that were long denied to people of color in European-controlled territories, serve as a cultural acknowledgment of their personhood, skill, and value as artists.  

  • African American Music
  • Roots
  • Jazz and Blues
  • Achievements and Impact
  • Resistance and Politics
  • Connecting Through Music
  • Paintings of African American Musicians
  • Photographs
  • Instruments
  • NMAAHC Collections
  • Credits and Additional Materials
  • Marian Anderson #1
  • Painting of Duke Ellington
  • Remembering Ummah
  • Celebration
  • Fab 5 Freddy
  • Junior Wells
  • Hot Chocolates
  • Harry Thacker Burleigh
  • Aretha: Mysterious Lady of Sorrows
  • Le Tumulte Noir/Jazz Band
  • Lena Horne
  • Marian Anderson
  • Louie Armstrong
  • Le Tumulte Noir/Josephine Baker in Palm Skirt
  • Jazz
  • Marian Anderson
  • Michael Jackson
  • Folk Scene--Man with Banjo
  • Sweet Adeline
  • Hommage à Bessie Smith
  • Roland Hayes
  • Duke Ellington
  • The Musicale, Barber Shop, Trenton Falls, New York, (painting)
  • Leontyne Price
  • Banjo Player, (painting)
  • Ornette Coleman
  • Lionel Hampton
  • Dizzy Gillespie
  • Miles Davis
  • Thelonious Monk

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