During the Civil War and Post-Reconstruction years, African-American art revealed the grim social conditions of the time. Artists such as Edmonia Lewis created a number of potent marble statues highlighting black American emancipation and female oppression. Artists such as Robert S. Duncanson chose to utilise art as a technique to transcend race and class politics. His landscape paintings, mainly of pastoral scenes, had a dreamy quality which appeared detached from the period of social reconstruction the country was going through.
The period after the end of the first world war saw another change in African-American visual art. At this time, there were large numbers of African Americans migrating to northern cities, away from the greater amount of repression within the south. There was also an increase in importance of leisure and escapism, brought on by the end of the war. This cultural movement was later named the Harlem Renaissance, which described all of these artists, political activists and social reformers and the greater voice they found within northern cities such as Washington, New York and Chicago. Artists such as Palmer C. Hayden depicted this new-found strength in the African American community by creating bold, stylised portraits of African Americans during this period.
During the years after the great depression and during World War II, African-American art became more orientated around public life and the public realm. Aaron Douglas' artwork for libraries and schools encouraged this shift and the desire for artwork to take on a greater importance within the everyday lives of African Americans. Douglas' artwork utilised repetitive geometric shapes, abstract forms and striking use of color to transform public buildings.
The Black Arts movement in the 1960's and 1970's was characterised by art's perceived ability to influence cultural authority. Artists had the power to influence the viewer and the wider community with what they produced. Artists such as Frank Bowling were driven by the realization that black artists could overcome racial obstacles and have commercial success. Bowling's artwork was known for its abstract work with the use of earthly colored oils.