New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934

This work analyzes the experiences and works of six African American artists who lived and worked in Paris during the Jazz Age: sculptors Elizabeth Prophet and Augusta Savage, and painters Palmer Hayden, Hale Woodruff, Archibald J. Motley, Jr. and Albert Alexander Smith. These artists exhibited the works they created in Paris at prestigious salons in France and in the United States, winning fellowships, grants, and awards. Theresa Leininger-Miller argues that it was study abroad that won these artists critical acclaim, establishing their reputations as some of the most significant leaders of the new Negro Movement in the visual arts. She begins her study with a history of the debut of African American artists in Paris, 1803-1914, then provides readers with profiles of each of the six artists from their birth through the end of their time abroad. Finally, Leininger-Miller examines patterns and differences in these individuals' backgrounds and development, their patronage in the United States and France, their shared experiences abroad, and the impact their study in Paris had on the rest of their careers.