The Black Tsar

Artist Aaron Douglas American, 1899–1979

Datecirca 1928

MediumGouache and pencil on paper board

DimensionsImage (including border): 14 7/16 x 9 5/8 in. (36.7 x 24.4 cm)
Paper: 18 x 12 5/8 in. (45.7 x 32.1 cm)
Frame: 21 1/2 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. (54.6 x 41.3 x 3.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Susie R. Powell and Franklin R. Anderson

Object number2000.11.1

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCommissioned by Viking Press, New York, ca. 1928; created ca, 1928; collection of the artist; private collection; [Raymond Sacks, Sacks Fine Art, Inc., New York]; [Fulton Burt Gallery, Sarasota, FL]; Susie R. Powell and Franklin R. Anderson, Durham, NC; on extended loan to NCMA, 1999–2000; given to NCMA, 2000.
Published ReferencesPaul Morand, Black Magic (New York: Viking Press, 1929), illus. (b-w) opp. 2.

"N.C. Museum of Art Oks 7 acquisitions," Durham: The Herald-Sun (April 13, 2001), mentioned D5.

"N.C. Museum of Art approves video," North Wilkesboro, NC: The Journal Patriot (April 16, 2001), mentioned H8.

Marissa Vincenti, "Paint it Black: Aaron Douglas's Black Magic Illustrations," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview and Calendar of Events (Sept/Oct 2001), 8-9, illus. (b-w) 8.

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, Susan Earle, ed. (exhibition catalogue) (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, in association with Spencer Art Museum, 2007), noted 67, illus. (color) 155, pl. 58.

Lindsay Twa, “The Black Magic Island: The Artistic Journeys of Alexander King and Aaron Douglas from and to Haiti,” in Haiti and the Americas, Carla Calargé, et al, eds. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2013), discussed 146–148, illus. 147, fig. 6.

Lindsay J. Twa, Visualizing Haiti in U.S. Culture, 1910–1950 (Surrey, England, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2014), discussed 93–95, illus. (color) pl. 2.

We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s–1970s (exhibition catalogue) (Philadelphia, Woodmere Art Museum, 2015), illus. 107 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Objects of Desire: The Museum Collects, 1994-2004," July 18, 2004-February 27, 2005.

Lawrence, KS, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, "Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist," September 8-December 2, 2007; Nashville, TN, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, January 19-April 13, 2008, noted 67, illus. (color) 155, pl. 58.

Chapel Hill, NC, Ackland Art Museum, "Modern Black Culture: The Art of Aaron Douglas," April 22–Jun 19, 2022. Object Rights Statement

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