Enduring Voices Catalogue (6-21-23) - Flipbook - Page 31
Jacob
LAWRENCE
(1917-2000)
A social realist, Jacob Lawrence brought the African American
experience to life by painting black and brown figures contrasted
against vivid hues. He is best known for creating various series
of panels that depict the lives of important Black Americans
throughout history, as well as scenes of everyday life in the Black
community.
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Lawrence spent his teen years
in New York City. At thirteen, he was introduced to art through
an after-school program and went on to attend classes at the
Harlem Art Workshop. Using art to tell stories, Lawrence’s first
panel series, The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1937), documented
the achievements of the revolutionary founder of the Republic
of Haiti. Believing that L’Ouverture’s prodigiousness could not
be captured in a single painting, Lawrence produced forty-one
panels using bright colors and simple forms to evoke the drama
of L’Ouverture’s life. While the works garnered critical acclaim
for Lawrence, his most famous series is The Migration of the Negro
(1940-1941), a sixty-panel series depicting African American
migration from the South to industrial cities in the North between
1910 to 1940. Migration led to Lawrence being the first Black artist
represented by a mainstream New York City gallery.
Among the many teaching positions Lawrence held, he served as
professor of art at the University of Washington in his later years.
He painted until his death at eighty-three, passing with his wife of
sixty years, artist Gwendolyn Knight, at his side.
JACOB LAWRENCE
INTIMATE WORKS OF ART
It is hard for us to think of which work we like the
best. We love the Betye Saar. We think it’s a very
strong piece. As we said, we also love the Elizabeth
Catlett. We are drawn to that quality of strength. We
also should be sure not to overlook the small Jacob
Lawrence piece, The Prayer, which is an absolute
jewel in our collection. We adore that work. It would
be welcome in a major museum. They would like
to have it, but it is very small. And, you know, in a
museum it would just be sitting there as a minor thing,
but to us that Jacob Lawrence piece is truly a jewel.
That piece brings to mind that there are two kinds of
art. There are museum pieces that require enormous
walls. The Taubman Museum of Art is very fortunate
to have galleries that will accommodate such work.
Then there are people like us who live in normal
houses with normal size rooms and normal size walls.
We cannot accommodate enormous paintings, even
if we wanted them. But that means that we can
occasionally buy a small work that will really stand
out on our walls, and that Jacob Lawrence piece is a
perfect example. We pass that work every day in our
hallway, and we almost always stop to admire it.
–Susan S. and David R. Goode
Interesting Lawrence Fact:
Jacob Lawrence’s The Builders (1947) was purchased by the White House Historical
Association for $2.5 million in 2007. The painting has hung in the White House
Green Room since 2009.
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