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10 Things To Know About Black American Artist Jacob Lawrence

10 Things To Know About Black American Artist Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum / This long-lost Jacob Lawrence panel, “Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820-1840—115,773,” hung on a residential wall in Manhattan for two decades. Credit: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Peabody Essex Museum

Jacob Lawrence was a leading modernist painter of the 20th century, and one of the few Black artists of his time to gain broad recognition in the art world. He is best known for his Migration Series, a groundbreaking 30-panel series that depicted the flight of African Americans from the South.

The Migration Series had five panels missing until two of the paintings were recently found within a span of two weeks.

Known also for producing his narrative collection War Series, Lawrence illustrated the African American experience using vivid colors set against Black and brown figures. He also served as a professor of art at the University of Washington for 15 years.

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sept. 7, 1917, Lawrence was the son of Southern migrants. He moved with his mother and sister to Harlem in 1930 at age 13.

Noticing his budding art talent, his mother enrolled him at Utopia Children’s Center, which had an after-school art program. He dropped out of the school at the age of 16 but continued taking classes at the Harlem Art Workshop under the mentorship of artist Charles Alston.

Lawrence drew inspiration from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that he frequently visited while living in Harlem.

Here are 10 things you need to know about Jacob Lawrence:

Married fellow painter and sculptor Gwendolyn Knight in 1941

Lawrence married Gwendolyn Knight, a sculptor and painter, in 1941. She supported his art, providing both assistance and criticism, and helped him compose captions for many of his series.

Won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York

In 1937, Lawrence won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. When he graduated in 1939, he received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. He had already developed his own style of modernism and began creating narrative series, painting 30 or more workss on one subject. He completed his best-known series, “Migration of the Negro” or simply “The Migration Series,” in 1941.

1st African American exhibited at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery

The Migration Series was exhibited at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African American to join the gallery. Exhibition of these paintings catapulted the then 23-year-old artist to national acclaim.

Served as a professor of art at the University of Washington for 15 years

In 1971, Lawrence accepted a tenured position as a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he taught until he retired in 1986. He considered himself both an artist and educator and used his art to tell stories about Black history – stories that were overlooked in the typical American history taught in schools.

Drafted into U.S. Coast Guard in World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, Lawrence was drafted into the U.S. Coast Guard. After being briefly stationed in Florida and Massachusetts, he was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the war experience as he traveled around the world.

Produced 48 paintings during World War II and lost them all

During World War II, Lawrence produced close to 50 paintings but all ended up being lost. The lost works documented the experience of war. In October and November 1944, MOMA exhibited of all 60 of his migration panels plus eight of paintings Lawrence created aboard the Sea Cloud. He posed in uniform in front of a sign that read, “Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series and Works Created in the US Coast Guard”. The Coast Guard sent the eight paintings to exhibits around the U.S. In the disorder and personnel changes that came with demobilization at the end of the war, they went missing.

Received a Guggenheim Fellowship

When his tour of duty ended, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship to paint.

Suffered from depression

While living in New York, Lawrence struggled with depression. In 1949 he admitted himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens, staying for close to a year. But he continued honing his craft as a patient at the facility, producing artwork that reflected his emotional state. His art during this time incorporated subdued colors and melancholy figures, a sharp contrast to his previous works.

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Painted commissions and murals

After retiring, Lawrence spent much of the rest of his life painting commissioned work, and producing limited-edition prints to help fund nonprofits such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Children’s Defense Fund and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He also painted murals for the Harold Washington Center in Chicago, the University of Washington and Howard University, as well as a 72-foot mural for New York City’s Times Square subway station.

Painted until a few weeks before he died

Lawrence continued painting until a few weeks before he died from lung cancer, on June 9, 2000, at age 83. Until his death, Lawrence honed a unique visual language of abstraction that remained steeped in the human condition. Today, his work is in the collections of 200 museums across the world.