Caged Bird

The Picture the “Caged Bird” is a Harlem Renaissance classic

Walter Henry Williams was a late bloomer in the Harlem Renaissance seen in 1937. Most of his work is set in very somber settings with numerous uses of Orange, Black, Green and brown. His most famous piece is shown here on the side “Caged Bird” All of his pieces tend to make people stop and really ponder what it is he was trying to get across.

In the Picture “Caged Bird” we see a small young black boy sitting in a field with a crown caged up and his mother shouting at him in the distance. This piece is trying to convey is “Anger at racism”. The bird is symbolizing the African American people being cages and not being able to be free. The bird he chose was a crow for the simplistic reason of its dark feathers. While a bird is in its cage it can’t fight back or fly free instead it just thrashed around and hurts itself. “Anger at racism is shown here because racism though now a physical thing is like a cage and is baring the African American people and like the bird they are angry and fighting to brake free to the calling other of equality.

The Picture itself is a very interesting because it shows the struggle of a whole community to me but in the most basic of ways. I believe that Williams is one of the most talented and lesser-known artists of his era.