Gwendolyn Knight's Life During The Harlem Renaissance

Living during some of the United States’ most trying yet triumphant times, Gwendolyn Knight, took best from the struggles and success of her time creating a legacy of art for the American and African American Community. Post Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression brought Knight into contact with pioneers such as Langston Hughes, Augusta Savage, Claude McKay and Charles Alston. Knight was able to adapt to new environments, which in turn helped her develop her work and skills. Though Knight had an unconventional start like most artist she took art and made it in her own time. Not only was she black, but also a black woman. Being a woman, let alone being a black woman, art was not the easiest profession. Knight, famously known for creating portraits, but not the only medium of her work. One of her more famous portraits was

The WPA helped Knight to come into contact with those who were the heart of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Charles Alston, Augusta Savage, Alain Locke and others. The Savage Studio became like a second home to Knight. Though the Harlem Renaissance was over, a wave of new thinking came over the Harlem community, being the New Negro Movement. The movement emphasized the importance of artist getting in touch with their African roots as well as incorporating it in their work. In the mid-1930s, Knight started working with Alston on a mural project for the Harlem hospital that was open to all to participate. After approximately four years she left the project to get serious about her work. Knight started to spend more time in the Savage studio. Taking time out to visit Alston at the Harlem Community Art Center, she met a young man who was around seventeen and very serious about his work. Knight thought they young Jacob Lawrence was handsome, but she was five years older than