Harlem Cotton Club 

Tsuguharu Foujita created this watercolor and ink drawing titled 'Harlem Cotton Club'. It depicts a performance at the legendary night club of the Prohibition Era. The Cotton Club, a whites-only establishment, became famous for showcasing prominent Black entertainers, such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Lena Horne. In Foujita's rendering, minstrel-esque figures are interspersed with dancers on stage, and a group of white men in tuxedos is depicted to the left. Foujita, a Japanese artist who spent much of his career in France, was known for his ability to blend Japanese and Western artistic traditions. However, his outsider perspective allowed him to perpetuate exoticized caricatures of the Black performers. Foujita's 'Harlem Cotton Club' offers a glimpse into the complex intersection of race, entertainment, and cultural appropriation during the Jazz Age.