Renaissance music

“The younger generation is vibrant with a new psychology.” The writer Alain Locke said this during the Great Migration of the early 20th century, when African Americans from the South sought out a better life in big cities like Chicago, New York City and Detroit.

During that time, New York’s black population increased 250 percent, and with the growth came the cultural explosion known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” That’s where the blues and jazz music these Southerners brought with them reverberated on a broader scale. African American writers, artists and musicians found inspiration in the dance halls where blues and jazz filled the air every night.

Coinciding with the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, LSU Museum of Art’s new exhibit “The Visual Blues” offers examples from that period and shows how the movement still influences artists today.

It’s one of the largest collections the museum has ever assembled, with nearly 60 paintings, prints, photographs and more from 27 artists. Many of them were sketching away while the likes of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie took the stage in smoky dance halls.

The excitement of being part of that movement is evident in many of the works, such as paintings by Ellis Wilson (pictured) and William Henry Johnson. The colors are vibrant, and the subjects seem to move and twist in a frenzy stirred up by the music.

Jay Robinson’s 1947 painting, “Billie Holiday Sings the Blues,” finds her front and center on stage, like a princess bathed in blue light.

“The Visual Blues” includes works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and others. It is on view until July. Afterward, the exhibit will travel to the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Ga. Find out more at lsumoa.org.