Aaron Douglas Mural
BEYOND THE WALL
A closer look.
Details to notice. Connections to explore.
Larger than the original
The directory describes the reproduction as twice the original work’s size.
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Kansas Murals directory record Based on the directory’s recorded details.A Topeka artist
Aaron Douglas graduated from Topeka High School in 1917.
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Kansas Murals directory record Based on the directory’s recorded details.The artist behind it
The directory credits Aaron Douglas (original artwork); Dave Loewenstein, Stan Herd and community volunteers (Topeka reproduction) for Aaron Douglas Mural.
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Kansas Murals directory record Based on the directory’s recorded details.Its Kansas setting
This mural is recorded at Central Topeka 2, Topeka, KS 66621, USA.
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Kansas Murals directory record Based on the directory’s recorded details.
Description
Located at 12th and Lane, the Aaron Douglas Mural celebrates the life of the Topeka-born muralist, illustrator and scholar. Painted on a large wall by local high school and college students and residents of Topeka's Tennessee Town neighborhood, the mural is a reproduction of one of four panels of "Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction" that Douglas completed in 1934 for the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).
The painting of the mural, which is double the size of the original, was overseen by Kansas artist David Lowenstein, with the help of artist Stan Herd. Douglas (1899-1979) was born in Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School in 1917. He attended the University of Nebraska from 1918-1922, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He taught school in the Kansas City Area for several years, then moved to New York City to study under a master artist. He became known as the "Dean of African-American painters" and as the "official" artist and muralist during the Harlem Renaissance.
