id: 163769 accession number: 2005.181 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2005.181 updated: 2023-08-24 00:07:04.806000 Go Down Death, 1934. Aaron Douglas (American, 1899–1979). Oil on Masonite; framed: 124.5 x 94 x 3.8 cm (49 x 37 x 1 1/2 in.); unframed: 121.9 x 91.5 cm (48 x 36 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund and Gift of Prof. and Mrs. David C. Driskell 2005.181 Art © Heirs of Aaron Douglas/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY title: Go Down Death title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1934 creation date earliest: 1934 creation date latest: 1934 current location: 226A American Modern creditline: John L. Severance Fund and Gift of Prof. and Mrs. David C. Driskell copyright: Art © Heirs of Aaron Douglas/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY --- culture: America, 20th century technique: oil on Masonite department: American Painting and Sculpture collection: American - Painting type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Aaron Douglas (American, 1899–1979) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 124.5 x 94 x 3.8 cm (49 x 37 x 1 1/2 in.); Unframed: 121.9 x 91.5 cm (48 x 36 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed "A. Douglas" lower right corner in purple paint translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance opening date: 2007-09-08T00:00:00 Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance. Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS (organizer) (September 8-December 2, 2007); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (January 19-April 13, 2008); National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (May 9-August 3, 2008); Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY (August 30-November 30, 2008). title: The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s opening date: 2017-04-07T00:00:00 The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (April 7-August 20, 2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (September 30-November 21, 1976); High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (January 8-February 20, 1977); Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TX (March 30-May 15, 1977); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY(June 25-August 21, 1977). * Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950. Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA (September 14-November 10, 1985); Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Bronx, NY (January 14-March 10, 1986); California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (April 7-June 2, 1986); Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (July 4-August 31, 1986); Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC (September 22-November 17, 1986); San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX (December 15, 1986-February 9, 1987); Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (March 8-May 3, 1987). * Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, NY (February 12-August 30, 1987); Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (April 7-June 5, 1988); High Museum of Art, Alanta, GA (June 28-September 4, 1988); Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME (September 24-November 20, 1988); Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, University of Texas, Austin, TX (January 14-February 26, 1989); Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts (March 27-May 21, 1989); Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN (June 17-August 6, 1989); New York State Museum, Albany, NY (August 29-October 29, 1989). * Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The Davide C. Driskill Collection. The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (October 22- December 19, 1998); African American Museum, Dallas, TX (March 13- June 19, 1999); Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME (July 21- October 17, 1999); The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (November 20, 1999- February 12, 2000); The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (June 20- September 10, 2000); Newark Museum, Newark, NJ (October 25, 2000- February 25, 2001); Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (March 17- May 14, 2001); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (July 8- September 30, 2001); Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL (October 15, 2001- January 13, 2002), FL; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC (April 23-October 25, 2002). --- PROVENANCE Collection of the artist date: until 1977 footnotes: citations: Dr. and Mrs. David C. Driskell, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1977-2005 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2005- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Douglas founded the art department at Fisk University, where he also created many celebrated murals. digital description: The leading painter of the Harlem Renaissance, Douglas based this painting on an illustration he made for God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), a book by noted author and civil rights advocate James Weldon Johnson. Its subject tells the story of a winged angel of death who races through the heavens on horseback to rescue a woman from a life of suffering. wall description: Douglas is widely credited to have been the first African American artist to adopt an avant-garde style. This painting is based upon an illustration he made for God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), a book by noted author and civil rights advocate James Weldon Johnson. Its subject tells the story of a winged angel of death who races through the heavens on horseback to rescue a woman from a life of suffering. Perhaps underscoring the theme of deliverance is the single star placed prominently in the composition, which according to some scholars symbolizes the North Star that guided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Driskell, David, C. Two Centuries of Black American Art Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. page number: Mentioned: p. 153 url: Driskell, David C. Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950. San Francisco, Calif: The Association, 1985. page number: Cat. no. 50 url: Driskell, David C. Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800–1950. Bellevue Art Museum, Washington: Art Museum Association of America, 1985, second printing 1987. page number: Mentioned: p. 41,94 url: Campbell, Mary Schmidt. et al., Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York: Abrams, 1987. page number: Mentioned: p. 110, 130; Reproduced: color plate 33 url: Gips, Terry. Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. San Francisco, Calif: Pomegranate, 1998. page number: Cat. no. 14 url: Holland, Juanita Marie. Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1998. page number: Reproduced: frontispiece, p. 81, n. 14; Mentioned: p. 81, 183 url: McAleer,Bernard. “After Hours: An Inspiring Heritage.” The Network Journal 8, no. 4 (January 31, 2001) page number: Mentioned: p. 34 url: Litt, Steven. "Museum buys work by important black painter." The Plain Dealer, December 22, 2005. page number: Mentioned: p. F-1, F-3; Reproduced: p. F-3 url: "Mark Cole." Cleveland Art 46, no. 3 (March 2006) page number: Mentioned: p. 2, 10 url: Earle, Susan, ed. Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. page number: Reproduced: p. 172, n. 73 url: Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. page number: Reproduced: fig. 15, p. 13 url: Cole, Mark. "Jacob Lawrence's Fulton and Nostrand." Cleveland Art 48 (February 2008). page number: Reproduced: p. 7; Mentioned: p. 7 url: Gordon, Margery. "Eyes on the Prizes." Art & Auction 31 (February 2008) page number: Reproduced: p. 117; Mentioned: p. 117 url: Cole, Mark, "Jacob Lawrence's Fulton and Nostrand", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 48 no. 2, February 2008 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 7 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2008-02/page/6 McIntyre, Dianna. "A Personal Favorite." Cleveland Art 51 (March/April 2011) page number: Mentioned: p. 8; Reproduced: p. 8 url: Cole, Mark. African American Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. page number: Mentioned: p. 16 url: Anderson, Nancy. “Aaron Douglas/The Judgment Day/1939.” In American Paintings, 1900–1945, NGA Online Editions. page number: Reproduced: p. 7 url: Smith, Roberta. "A Show's Secret Star: Art Deco steps out incognito with plenty of company in a design exhibition." The New York Times, April 7, 2017. page number: Mentioned: p. C19 url: --- IMAGES