AphroChic

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Medium Black Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Large Black Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Large Gold Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

Almost nothing is known of the enigmatic young dancer, Allen Juante Jergerhadutha Meadows, featured in this image, except that his visage was inspirational to some of the leading creatives of the Harlem Renaissance period, both in and outside of the Harlem Black community. Meadows is reputed to have been born in British Guiana, though when and under what circumstances he immigrated to New York are unclear or unknown. He is remembered as a dancer, yet almost no records of his performances remain. Yet the mystery only serves to increase the allure of his undeniably striking visage, which inspired, among others, the Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richard Barthe who immortalized him in the 1939 sculpture Boy with a Flute. Barthe later introduced Meadows to controversial photographer and author Carl Van Vechten. Similarly taken with Meadow's aesthetic, Van Vecthen created a series of photographs featuring him, which remain today as the most lasting memory of this otherwise forgotten figure of the New Negro Movement. This archival museum quality print, presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper, is sustainably printed to order in the UK, perfect for making a beautiful statement in any room of your home.

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Medium Gold Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Large Blue Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

Looking for one-of-a-kind pieces for entertaining? This Medium Blue Handwoven Ugandan Decorative Basket is exactly what you need. Handmade by artisans in Uganda, each bowl is a work of art for your walls. Available in large and medium sizes, these sustainably made bowls, are handmade with raffia and banana stalks, and will last for years to come.

This 1934 Self-Portrait by Harlem Renaissance artist Malvin Gray Johnson was completed shortly before the artist's tragic passing that same year at the age of 38. Johnson’s original oil painting depicts the artist in casual dress and pose, in front of a representation of another of his works — 1932's Negro Masks. Although known for his portraits, several of Johnson's most celebrated efforts, including 1929's Swing Low Sweet Chariot and 1930's Roll Jordan Roll, are Cubist works. Though his paintings were exhibited by the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and acquired by the Whitney Museum among others, many were lost or neglected after his death so that now only 60 remain scattered across various collections. His passing was met with mourning from the whole Harlem Renaissance community, which until then, had regarded the much-awarded artist as among its brightest lights. This print of one of his most iconic works is reproduced by archivists in the United Kingdom using museum quality paper and ink, resulting in a colorful piece of art that is faithful to the original.

Girl with Pomegranates, 1938, by acclaimed African American artist, Laura Wheeler Waring is a mix of genres, combining several of the artist's most noted strengths. Blending elements of portrait, still life and landscape, the image depicts a young woman sitting with a bowl of pomegranates, one held in her hand, before a setting in which a landscape painting is partially obscured by the backdrop. Known primarily for her landscapes and still lifes, the artist, who was born in Connecticut and studied extensively in Paris before settling in Philadelphia to teach at Cheyney University, completed striking portraits of fellow contemporaries in the New Negro Movement. This work is emblematic of Wheeler's studies of Black women of the time, defying stereotypes of race and class with depictions of Black women as sophisticated and modern. Here, it is the inclusion of the pomegranate that is most telling. In the myths of ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean cultures, the fruit is a symbol of fertility and sensuality as well as prosperity. It was frequently depicted in hieroglyphs on Egyptian tombs and whole pomegranates have been found among the funerary goods of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, and various nobles interred at the necropolis of Thebes. Later, in Christian art, the pomegranate would be widely employed as a symbol of wealth, royalty, divinity and eternal life in paintings such as Botticelli's Madonna of the Pomegranate (1487) and the similarly-themed, The Virgin with the Pomegranate (1426) by Giovanni da Fiesole, a Dominican friar and painter, also known as Fra Angelico. Wheeler’s work brings all of this symbolic power to bear, placing it literally in the hands of a Black woman as she looks serenely out at the viewer.

Untitled [Floral Still Life] by Edward Mitchell Bannister was created ca. 1864. The piece, which is part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, shows a shift in Bannister’s focus from the expansive, pastoral New England landscapes he is known for, to an evocative interior study of nature. Featuring a large floral arrangement on a table draped in linen, a dark, moody color palette emerges. Here, Bannister’s signature textured brushstrokes can be seen, tenderly capturing the velvet quality of each petal in dark reds, deep greens and shadowy blues. Showcasing his incredible skill that was reflective of the Barbizon art movement at the time, Bannister’s masterful, painterly style creates an atmosphere that feels deeply personal, intimate, and alive. Printed on 5.57 oz smooth matte fine art paper, this work is available framed, reproduced by archivists in the United Kingdom using museum quality paper and ink, resulting in a piece that is faithful to the original.

Un Pintor En Reposo, literally, "A Painter in Repose (or at rest)," is a 1916 work by the renowned Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. Known for many things, including his famously tumultuous relationships with both the Communist Party and equally legendary painter, Frida Kahlo (whom he married twice), Rivera — of African and Indigenous, as well as Portuguese Jewish and Spanish ancestry — is perhaps best remembered artistically for his politically-charged murals. Yet, throughout his career, Rivera displayed a remarkably versatile talent that was equally comfortable in the genres of Realism, Pointillism, Post-Impressionism and Cubism, as well as his unparalleled Muralism. Un Pintor En Reposo comes from a very early moment in the artist's journey during which he lived and studied across Europe. The work is one of many that he produced between 1912 and 1917, a period in which he embraced Cubism, inspired by meetings with both Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne, the latter himself remembered as the great bridge between his own Post-Impressionist movement and that of the Cubists. Exploring Cézanne's theory that any physical object can be represented in art through reference to the cylinder, sphere or cube — whether singly or in combination — the painting represents the simple subject of a seated painter as a complex and evocative mix of shapes, colors and impressions. Printed on 5.57 oz smooth matte fine art paper, this work is available framed and unframed, reproduced by archivists in the United Kingdom using museum quality paper and ink, resulting in a piece that is faithful to the original.

Girl in Pink Dress, 1927, by acclaimed African American artist, Laura Wheeler Waring depicts a young woman in the Jazz Age style of the Harlem Renaissance. Known primarily for her landscapes and still lifes, the artist, who was born in Connecticut and studied extensively in Paris before settling in Philadelphia to teach at Cheyney University, completed striking portraits of fellow contemporaries in the New Negro Movement. This work is emblematic of Wheeler's studies of Black women of the time, defying stereotypes of race and class with depictions of Black women as sophisticated and modern — indicated here by the woman's trendy flapper-style dress and bobbed haircut. It is one of several such images that the artist produced, drawing the praise of Alain Locke, one of the New Negro Movement's intellectual founders. Wheeler also worked with another of the movement's intellectual pillars, W.E.B. Du Bois as an illustrator, contributing more than twenty cover and copy illustrations to his magazine, The Crisis.

This 1932 work by Harlem Renaissance artist Malvin Gray Johnson depicts two West African masks — one Yoruba, the other Bwa. The work is a response to several occurrences in the art scene at that time. First, was a challenge issued by Johnson's friend and mentor, Alain Locke, author of the 1925 New Negro Anthology, to several Black artists to find inspiration in African art. Second, it was a rebuff to the presentation of African art, which was growing in popularity at the time along with European modernist art, as the work of "savages," despite being a significant inspiration for Modernism itself. Negro Masks is one of sixty surviving works by the artist, who tragically passed away at the age of 38 in 1934. Celebrated in his time for his portraits, Malvin is remembered as a pioneering example of Symbolic Abstractionism and Cubist painting. Printed on 5.57 oz smooth matte fine art paper, this work is available framed and unframed, reproduced by archivists in the United Kingdom using museum quality paper and ink, resulting in a piece that is faithful to the original.

Carmen De Lavallade, famed African American dancer, actress and choreographer was born in Los Angeles in 1931 to a Creole family from New Orleans that included Janet Collins, De Lavallade’s cousin, and the first Black Prima Ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Destined for dance herself, Carmen began studying ballet at 16. By 1954 she had reached New York and was dancing with the Alvin Ailey Company following a stint as the lead dancer for the Lester Horton Dance Theater in Los Angeles beginning in 1949. Also in 1954, she made her broadway debut alongside Alvin Ailey and Pearl Bailey in House of Flowers, a musical written by Truman Capote. Her substantial broadway career would be augmented by several film and television appearances including Duke Ellington’s A Drum is a Woman in 1957 and Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones with Pearl Bailey and Dorothy Dandridge in 1954. In the years that followed she traveled the world, frequently with her husband and longtime collaborator Geoffrey Holder, dancing, acting and teaching. In 1970, De Lavallade joined the Yale School of Drama as a performer-in-residence and choreographer, and later became a professor of the Yale Repertory Theater, which at the time counted Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep among its students. The recipient of many awards over her long and illustrious career, Carmen De Lavallade was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2017. This photo, taken at the start of her career in 1955 by noted American photographer Carl Van Vechten is reproduced here in an archival museum quality print. Presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper, this piece is sustainably printed to order in the UK, making it the perfect choice for a beautiful statement in any room.

This archival museum quality print of a Carl Van Vechten photo of singer, actor and activist, Eartha Kitt is presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper. Born into difficult circumstances as Eartha Mae Keith in 1927, Kitt became one of the most recognizable faces and unforgettable voices of the 20th century. By 1945 she was a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham Company, and her remarkable beauty and singular voice quickly led to a series of successes both in the theater and on the radio. She starred as Helen of Troy in Orson Welles' 1950 production of Faustus. In 1967, she defined Catwoman in the Batman television series. And in 1992, her sultry Lady Eloise became an iconic character in Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang. An outspoken advocate of feminism and civil rights, Kitt’s career suffered in 1968 when she made openly negative remarks about the Vietnam War at a luncheon with First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. In 1975, The New York Times reported that the CIA had compiled a dossier on Kitt at the behest of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Despite this, throughout her illustrious career Kitt recorded 17 studio albums, 8 live albums, more than 50 singles, wrote 3 autobiographies, and starred in countless films and television series. A true heroine, this reproduction print, produced in color and sustainably printed to order in the UK, is the perfect statement piece for any interior.

Edward Mitchell Bannister painted Woman Standing Near A Pond in 1880. The piece was created in Rhode Island, where he lived for much of his life. In the oil painting, a woman, simply dressed, passes through a country landscape. To her right, luminous, still waters reflect an atmospheric sky, suggesting the serene spirituality that the artist perceived in nature. The piece is painted in the Barbizon style of the 19th century, showcasing Bannister’s emotionally evocative brushstrokes, and deep tonalist color palette.

This striking photograph was taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten of American dance pioneer Alvin Ailey Jr. in 1955. Born in Rogers, Texas in 1931, Ailey’s family joined the Great Migration in 1941, eventually settling in Los Angeles. There Ailey’s early affinity for the arts and brief flirtations with dance coalesced into a serious study in 1949 when classmate Carmen De Lavallade, herself to become a towering figure in the history of dance, invited him to the Lester Horton school, where she studied and performed. Though he still resisted committing fully to dance, noting the lack of opportunity for Black, male performers, he was mentored by Horton while he pursued other studies at various California schools including UCLA and San Francisco State University. While in San Francisco he met and formed a night club act with Marguerite Johnson, who would later be known to the world as Maya Angelou. By 1953 he had joined Horton’s dance company and, following Horton’s death later that year, assumed the responsibilities of artistic director and choreographer. Under his direction in 1954 the troupe performed in several shows including According to St. Francis — dedicated to Horton — Creation of the World and Morning Mourning, based on a piece by Tennessee Williams and featuring Carmen De Lavallade. The same year Ailey appeared in the Dorothy Dandridge film, Carmen Jones, dancing opposite De Lavallade before the pair, by then a known duo in Los Angeles, would appear on Broadway in the Truman Capote-authored musical House of Flowers. For the next several years Ailey would appear in numerous productions, including Harry Belafonte’s Sing, Man, Sing and Jamaica, a 1957 Broadway musical starring Lena Horne. In 1958, Ailey cemented his impact on American dance history with the establishment of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and again in 1969 with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, later called the Ailey School in 1999. In the decades that passed from the founding of the theater until his passing in 1989 at the age of 58, Alvin Ailey choreographed more than 100 pieces for his dancers, in addition to becoming a pivotal figure in the lives and careers of countless dancers and a pillar of the American and global dance community. He was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor, in 1989 and posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama in 2014. Today, the Alvin Ailey School remains one of the most prestigious dance academies in America. This archival museum quality print is presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper. Printed sustainably to order in the UK, it is a perfect choice for making a beautiful statement in any room of your home.

Landscape [Trees] by Edward Mitchell Bannister is an undated work by the artist. Part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, this piece is an example of Bannister’s focus on nature and the landscapes of pastoral New England. Amongst a dark, moody palette, Bannister’s signature brushstrokes are present, showcasing his skill as a tonalist, reflective of the Barbizon art movement of the 19th century. Printed on 5.57 oz smooth matte fine art paper, this work is available framed, reproduced by archivists in the United Kingdom using museum quality paper and ink, resulting in a piece that is faithful to the original.

This 1870 oil painting by Edward Mitchell Bannister references the natural landscapes and seascapes that the artist was drawn to during his life in New England. Known for using a tonalism style, emphasizing both mood and shadow in the rendering of his pastoral scenes, Bannister’s technique often involved building up the surface of his works through heavy, dense brush strokes in what was often deemed impressionist style painting. Streamside is an excellent example of his preference for landscapes adorned with trees and rolling hills, capturing the sprawling vastness of America’s natural terrain.

Time in Paris, 1932, a close study of the face and features of a Black woman, was created by acclaimed African American artist and Harlem Renaissance figure, Laura Wheeler Waring. Known primarily for her landscape and still life paintings, the artist, who was born in Connecticut and studied extensively in Paris before settling in Philadelphia to teach at Cheyney University, completed striking portraits of fellow contemporaries in the New Negro Movement. Among her most noted capture the images of James Weldon Johnson, Mahalia Jackson and W.E.B. Du Bois among several others. She also worked with Du Bois as an illustrator, contributing more than twenty cover and copy illustrations to his magazine, The Crisis. Contrasting her realist portraits, 10 of which reside in the collections of the Smithsonian, Wheeler was known for her impressionist creations, which frequently explored the beauty of flowers and nature.

Born in Harlem, NY in 1934, Arthur Mitchell would become one of the most impactful dance performers of his day. Admitted to New York’s High School of Performing Arts, he pursued a career in ballet, following his high school studies with a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. By 1952, Mitchell had already made his debut on Broadway in Four Saints in Three Acts, an opera, ahead of his performance in the Truman Capote penned musical House of Flowers. With music composed by Harold Arlen, the play featured Alvin Ailey, Geoffrey Holder and Pearl Bailey, as well as Carmen de Lavallade and Diahann Carroll. This photo was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1955, the year Mitchell debuted as the first African American dancer at the New York City Ballet. He would eventually rise to become the company’s principle dancer, and remained in the role until 1966. Following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mitchell dedicated himself to bringing opportunities to the youth of Harlem. In 1969 he founded the Dance Theater of Harlem with actors Brock Peters and Cicely Tyson. He would later enlist his own dance teacher, Karel Shook, a former faculty member at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and teacher at the Dutch National Ballet, who had also instructed Alvin Ailey, Carmen De Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder throughout his career. Within months, the school which began in a church basement with only 30 students had grown to as many as 400. Still thriving today, the school has produced numerous standouts in dance, music, wardrobe and staging for the theater. In 1993, Mitchell was honored by the Kennedy Center. This archival museum quality print is presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper. Printed sustainably to order in the UK, it is a perfect choice for making a beautiful statement in any room of your home.

The legendary Lady Day. Her life was tumultuous, her rise to stardom meteoric and her end, tragic. Here she is, photographed by famed American Photographer Carl Van Vechten in a late night session in Harlem in 1949. Even the story of the shoot is iconic. Arranged by African American journalist and activist Gerri Major, the shoot was a disaster from the start. Holiday arrived in neither the clothes nor the spirits the shoot hoped to capture. Things only worsened as Van Vechten attempted to goad her into other attire. But everything changed when he showed the singer a collection of photos he’d taken of Bessie Smith, the famed African American jazz-age singer known as the Empress of the Blues. Holiday was transfixed by the images, which brought her to tears, leading to a photo session that went on through the night and saw holiday posing artistically in several outfits, as well as nothing at all. One of the most singular voices of her age, Billie Holiday’s fame was curtailed both by her personal struggles and ultimately by the relentless persecution of the U.S. government following her recording and performance of the protest song Strange Fruit. The campaign against her lasted in various forms from 1939 when the song was recorded to 1959 when the singer laid handcuffed by federal agents to the hospital bed in which she would eventually pass away at the age of 44. This archival museum quality print is presented on 100% acid free, 5.57 oz, smooth matte fine art paper. Printed sustainably to order in the UK, it is a perfect choice for making a beautiful statement in any room of your home.

The Farm Landing by Edward Mitchell Bannister was painted in 1892. The piece, which resides in the White House, is a showcase of Bannister’s signature style, where he features expansive, pastoral New England landscapes. Here we see two red rowboats at the water's edge, tucked among the reeds and lily pads that float across the foreground of the painting. Just up the bank a pair of cattle graze in the open field, one of them a warm reddish brown. A cluster of tall trees rises behind them, their leaves rendered in loose, feathery strokes, while the sky opens up in soft blues and pale clouds. The whole scene has the feel of a working farm on an ordinary afternoon, with a worn dirt path leading up from the landing. Reflective of Barbizon movement of the 19th century, this painting beautifully features Bannister’s love of tonalism.