In the twentieth century, new standards of beauty included modern painting styles. Charles Sebree abstracted the human figure by flattening the body into planes of muted color, separated by dark outlines. His bold forms recall the simplicity and directness of Byzantine art and icon paintings from the past. Art historian James A. Porter praised this quality early in Sebree’s career in the book Modern Negro Art, published in 1943. Porter wrote that Sebree’s work “is conceived in a mood of contemplation and recalls the mystical purity of Byzantine enamels or Russian icon painting.”