Baker, Luna, and Baldwin all found themselves enveloped in the European sphere, discovering professional success unlike anything they ever witnessed in America. They were celebrated artists, credited with genius and beauty, seen as they wished instead of how the world chose. They all found Europe to be a singularly beautiful respite from the harsh racial dynamics of American culture and largely chose to stay there instead of returning to the land in which they were born. These black artists, alongside others, claimed Europe (particularly France) as the home of their art, blessing it with their genius and bathing its streets in their creativity. But why Europe? Why France? What does Europe possess that America does not? I believe the answer is simple. Europe was designed to recognize artists. America tends to make them.

Now this is not to say that great artists don’t come from Europe (we have abundant proof that they do) and that America never recognizes art (NYC needs no mention), however, I do think that both places fundamentally engage with black expression differently. During the 20th century, the American racial relationship was particularly fervent, making the success of black artists difficult. After centuries of viewing black people strictly as property, stripping them of their humanity, seeing the widespread public rise in black creativity was the antithesis to everything white America had been led to believe. This display of art, and by extension humanity, was so opposite of the inhuman portrait they’d been exposed to that it seemed only right to reject it. America had grown comfortable with the rejection of black humanity, and the rejection of black creativity was no different.

While Europe still struggled with its own racial prejudice (looking at you British colonization), its 20th-century relationship to black art was vastly different from that of America. Barbara Chase-Ribaoud, an American painter and sculptor described Italy with adoration. In reference to the country, she said it was when she “first tasted liberty…. That’s the ultimate liberty: feeling that the space around you is expandable”. Europe saw black art simply as art. While it was “black”, it was also art, and the latter mattered more. Models like Donyale Luna were widely considered goddesses in Europe, appreciated by the masses instead of select American geniuses like Avedon. Europe enabled creativity, providing an emotionally sustainable way of living and a means of appreciation.

None of this is to say that America cannot foster great artists or that Europe is without its faults. Both places create and sustain art in different ways, catering to their ideologies and seeking profit above all else. But I do think it important to analyze what it was about 20th-century Europe that drew so many Black American creatives to its cities. France saw James Baldwin and Josephine Baker, Germany saw Audre Lorde and Tina Turner, and France, Britain, and Italy were all blessed by the presence of Donyale Luna. The black creative is destined to thrive wherever they go. It is the nature of an artist to create art out of every part of life even when it is ugly. But when some of the best artists of a generation were born in America and resuscitated in Europe, one must wonder why. My answer is simple. We are drawn to what we do not know and we are drawn to what might be better. And to them, Europe was both of those things. A magnet, drawing in artists with art of its own.