The focal point of this dissertation was to generate a theory of the black aesthetic in the visual arts. The specific areas investigated were: (1) the black artists' and art students' assessment of their role to their community, (2) the explicit and/or implicit attitudes as perceived by the visual art participants of art instructors and art critics to works of art denoting racial consciousness, (3) the attitudes of community residents to works of art that denote racial consciousness, (4) the perceived stresses that occur when those artists or art students participating in the study produced works of art that denote racial consciousness within the academic and nonacademic community, and (5) to record and analyze the participants' notions of the black aesthetic. The population sample consisted of 83 professional artists, 103 art students and 92 community residents in 8 major urban cities in the U.S. For the participants in the study, the underpinnings of the black aesthetic are shaped by 5 categories of experience: (1) historical perspective, (2) call-and-response, (3) improvisation, (4) representational balance, and (5) balanced-intensity in color. (Author/AM)