Jacob Lawrence

(1917-2000)

Experimented with both commercial and handmade tempera.

He used tempera to make images that tell a story, like the great migration.

Most famous work:
1. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 57, 1940-41
  1. Artist: Jacob Lawrence
  2. Date: 1940-1941
  3. Medium: Casein Tempera on hardboard
  4. Dimensions: 18 x 12" (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
  5. Classification:
  6. Credit Line:
  7. AccessionNumber:
  8. Rights and Reproduction:
2. Pool Parlor, 1942
  1. Artist: Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917-2000 Seattle, Washington)
  2. Date: 1942
  3. Medium: Watercolour and gouache on paper
  4. Dimensions: 31 1/8 x 22 7/8 in. (79.1 x 58.1 cm)
  5. Classification: Drawings
  6. Credit Line: Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1942
  7. Accession Number: 42.167
  8. Rights and Reproduction: © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
3. This is Harlem, 1943
  1. Artist: Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
  2. Date: 1943
  3. Provenance:
    Alan Gallery, New York, to 2 May 1959
    
    Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, 2 May 1959-17 May 1966
    
    Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
  4. Medium: Gouache and pencil on paper
  5. Dimensions:
    1. Sheet: 15 5/16 x 22 5/8 in. (38.9 x 57.5 cm)
    2. Image: 14 5/8 x 21 3/4 in. (36.5 x 52.3 cm)
  6. See more items in: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection
  7. Classification:
  8. Credit Line: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
  9. Accession Number: 66.2921
  10. Rights and Reproduction:
  11. Type: Painting
  12. School: African-American Figuration, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  13. Record ID: hmsg_66.2921
  14. Exhibition History:
    HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 15 June-8 September 2002. Tour: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003.
    
    JEWISH MUSEUM, New York. "Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art," 18 October 2019-9 February 2020, color ill. p. 126.
  15. GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2764924cc-ae46-4260-bd18-1135fbcd3422
4. Two Rebels, 1963
  1. Artist: Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
  2. Date: 1963
  3. Medium: One color Lithograph on Rives Paper, ed. of 50
  4. Dimensions: 30 1/2 x 20 1/4 in. (77.5 x 51.4 cm)
  5. Credit Line:
  6. Accession Number: Kelley037
  7. Rights and Reproduction: Publication may be restricted. For information see "Jacob Lawrence,"
  8. Summary: Print shows two men with clubs (strikers or strikebreakers?) man.
5. To Preserve Their Freedom (From the Toussaint L'ouverture series), 1988
  1. Artist:
  2. Date: 1988
  3. Medium: Silkscreen on paper, ink on paper
  4. Dimensions: 22 x 32 1/8 in (55.9 x 81.6 cm)
  5. Classification: Visual Arts
    1. Type: Screen Prints
  6. Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
  7. Object Number: 2008.12.6
  8. Rights and Reproduction: © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  9. GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5157dc76d-4d5a-4283-8a9e-131f2a09a2e4
Year it was created:
1. 1940-1941
2. 1942
3. 1943
4. 1963
5. 1988
Title of the work:
1. The Migrtion of the Negro
2. Pool Parlor
3. This is Harlem
4. Two Rebels
5. To Preserve Their Freedom
Story they tell:
1. A group of paintings which depicts the migration of African Americans to the northern Unites States from the South that began in the 1910s
  1. Lawrence's 60-panel series depicts a mass migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West.
  2. Lawrence's painting of a laundrette in his Migration of the Negro series shows a jumble of colorful textiles as she works to make ends meet before the journey north begins.
2. A prizewinner in the Artists for Victory competition, this painting depicts the relaxed but busy atmosphere of a pool hall.
3. Lawrence created abstract paintings depicting the Harlem neighborhood. These paintings feature cast-iron fire escapes, signs, laundry on lines, and more.
  1. Lawrence painted a street scene in the town church, and several figures go in and out of the building.
4. Two African American men are arrested and dragged to jail by four white police officers in 1963 in response to the anti-segregation demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.
5. After hearing the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture as a young man, Lawrence decided to visualize the historical moment by using bright colors and simple forms.
Medium:
1. Casein Tempera on hardborad
2. Watercolour and gouache on paper
Dimensions:
Current location of the work:
1. The Museum of Modern Art and The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York City, NY
3. Alan Gallery, New York
4. Unknown
5. Cleveland Museum of Art

Artist Biography

Year of Birth/ Birth date: September 7th, 1917
Year of Death/Death date: June 9th, 2000
Place of Birth: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Place of Death: Seattle, Washington
Awards and Honors: National Medal of Arts (1990)
Family History: Lawrence was the son of Southern migrants, parents separated, he and his siblings were put into foster care, Moved with his mother and sister to Harlem in 1930, His father worked as a railroad cook and in 1919 moved his family to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he sought work as a coal miner. Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, and then to Harlem, New York, where enrolled in public school and a settlement house un by Charles Alston. Lawrence grew up in em during the Great Depression, He received early training at art workshops sponsored by the federal government's Works progress Administration (WPA) in Harlem and then studied at the American Artist School in New York.
Institutions of study:
1. He received early training at art workshops sponsored by the federal government's Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Harlem
2. American Artists School in New York
He taught at:
1. for a number of years, he taught at The Art Students League in New York
Over the years he has also served on the faculties of:
1. Brandeis University
2. the New School for Social Research
3. California State College at Hayward
4. Pratt Institute
5. the University of Washington, Seattle where he was Professor Emeritus of Art
Institutions of Study:
1. Civilian Conservation Corps
2. Harlem Community Art Center
biographical information of importance:
1. Using art as an instrument of protest, Lawrence aligned himself with the American school of social realism and Mexican muralist tradition.
More Information:
1. Lawrence was one of the first nationally recognized African American artists to document the African American experience through his paintings
2. Jacob Lawrence's productions always seek to express the universal beauty of man's struggle to add dimension to his spiritual being.
3. Lawrence, the most widely acclaimed African American artist of the century, was born in a black community and grew up around black artists, and studied the lives and struggles of African Americans.
4. Lawrence began drawing geometric patterns and made dioramas from corrugated cardboard boxes after he began attending classes at Utopia Children's Center and dropped out of high school. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and later became associated with the Harlem Community Art Center.

Art Movement

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Art Critics

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Art Historians:
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Personal Thoughts and Conclusion:

What are your thoughts about the work? The work is truly remarkable, That the artist didn't just paint moments in history, he painted moments in history that HE LIVED THROUGH. He didn't just paint a story, he painted his life, events from his life that he lived through.
Some suggestions to write about: Do you like or dislike the work?
1. I really love the work he did in all his paintings, it's really hard to choose just one of his paintings to talk about, but I choose the migration of the negro.
Why or why not?
1. I really love this piece because it was one of the paintings he did and it was about the migration of African Americans from the south to the north
Are there any spiritual aspects to the work?
Does the work evoke any feeling or emotion in the viewer?
Does the work stimulate your intellect?
What are the strengths/weaknesses of the artist's body of work?

Jacob Lawrence – (1917-2000) Experimented with both commercial and handmade tempera, he used tempera to make images that tell a story, like the great migration.
Born: September 7, 1917 – Atlantic City – New Jersey
Died: June 9, 2000 (aged 82) – Seattle – Washington
Awards And Honors: National Medal of Arts (1990)
Notable Works: “The Migration of the American Negro”
American painter of the 20th century whose works, frequently done in series using tempera or gouache on paper or cardboard, portray scenes of Black life and history with vivid stylized realism
Jacob Armstead Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where his parents separated. His family moved north to New York City.
Lawrence was the oldest of three siblings and was placed in foster care while his mother worked in New York City, and when he turned 13, he started creating art. He eventually dropped out of high school and worked odd jobs until 1938.
Early Training and Work
- - Lawrence was the first major artist of the 20th century who trained within the art community in Harlem and was the first to use Harlem as a subject in his work, as the cultural locus of Black American life following the Harlem Renaissance.
  - Lawrence was keen to learn about the history of art, which led him to study historical literature at the Arthur Schomburg collection at the New York Public Library. He used this information to create many of his most well-known and best-regarded works.
  - Jay Leyda introduced Lawrence to Russian and German interwar cinema, and his friendship with Jay Leyda and the Museum of Modern Art influenced Lawrence's scenic construction of each series' narrative progression. Lawrence's connection to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and his studies with Harry Gottlieb helped shape his Social Realist painting.
  - In 1940, Lawrence completed a 60-panel series depicting the emigration of African-Americans. During this time he met his future wife, Gwendolyn Knight, who assisted him in writing captions for the series and preparing the gesso panels.
  - Lawrence started gaining mainstream art institutional support around 1946 and had his first solo exhibition at MoMA in 1944.
  - Lawrence's compositional approach was influenced by the work of Josef Albers, who hired a private train to bring Lawrence and his wife to Black Mountain College.
  - Following Albers' example, Lawrence utilized color juxtapositions to produce expressionist work and conceptualized pictorial space as an architectural plane of interlocking shapes and lines.
Mature Period
- - In his 1950 Hospital series, Lawrence depicts the psychological burden of assuming a symbolic status in his work, which led to a mental breakdown in 1949 and a year in a mental health treatment facility.
  - In the mid-century, Lawrence's artistic style matured, straddling the divide between abstraction and figuration, with a new bold geometricizing approach. Although he was influenced by black art groups, he remained outside of these art circles due to his already prominent stature.
  - Lawrence was a gentle but tough artist who aspired to realize a fair and just society through his art.
  - Lawrence and his wife Gwendolyn traveled to Nigeria in 1962, where they lectured on Cubism's influence on African art, and where they were blacklisted, unable to secure housing, and under constant surveillance by the U.S. Government.
Late Period
- - Lawrence's career was marked by institutional validation, as he was awarded a Whitney Museum of American Art retrospective in 1974, became a professor at Pratt Institute, and founded the Rainbow Art Foundation in 1976.
    - - Lawrence’s later career was marked by institutional validation, exemplified by his 1974 Whitney Museum of American Art retrospective which traveled to five other cities, and by Lawrence’s position as a prominent art educator. Lawrence was on faculty at Pratt Institute from 1958 to 1970
      - Lawrence served on the advisory board for the founding of the Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., and, in 1976
  - Lawrence's exposure to murals was due to Charles Alston's work with the WPA Harlem Muralists, and his interest in murals began at a young age. He took on several large-scale mural commissions over the next twelve years.
The Legacy of Jacob Lawrence
- - Lawrence was one of the first African-American artists to exhibit at a commercial gallery in New York, where he exhibited from 1941 to 1953
    - Lawrence was the first African-American artist to be represented by a New York commercial gallery
  - Lawrence's work had an impact on many artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Yusul Grillos.
  - Lawrence’s time in Nigeria as an educator and as exhibitor influenced the artist of the Mbari art movement, including Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusul Grillos

	Created by Raini Pegram about 5 years ago

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