Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was a great painter.

He used bright colors and bold shapes.

He painted many stories. He told tales about history. He also painted people in their daily lives.

He lived in a place called Harlem. He found ideas there. He saw colors in people's homes.

Jacob made many paintings in a set. One set told about a great move of many people. This made him very famous.

He even taught art at a college. His art is in many big museums today.

Jacob Lawrence was a famous American painter.

He used bright colors and bold shapes to tell stories. He called his style "dynamic cubism." This style used shapes inspired by art from Africa and Mexico.

Lawrence loved to paint life in Harlem. He saw beauty in the patterns of carpets and the colors in homes. He often made many paintings to tell one big story. One famous set is called The Migration Series. It has 60 panels. These paintings show how many African Americans moved from the South to the North.

He also painted famous people from history. He made works about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. He even painted a series about a leader named Toussaint L’Ouverture. Lawrence was a teacher, too. He taught at the University of Washington for 16 years. Today, his art hangs in many great museums. One of his paintings is even in the White House.

Jacob Lawrence was a famous American painter who loved to tell stories.

He used bright colors and bold shapes to show the lives of African Americans. He called his own style "dynamic cubism." This style used shapes inspired by art from West Africa and Mexico. His work often showed the history and the daily struggles of his people. People love his art because it feels alive and full of energy. He wanted his paintings to show both the beauty and the hard parts of life.

Lawrence had a special way of making his art. He often created many paintings to tell one long story. This is called a series. When he used tempera paint, he had to work very fast. This paint dries quickly, so he planned everything ahead of time. He would use one color across many different scenes to keep them looking the same. He did this to make sure the whole story felt connected. This careful way of working helped his stories flow smoothly.

His journey into art began in Harlem, New York. As a young boy, he drew patterns from his mother's carpets. He later took classes at the Utopia Children's Center. Other artists like Charles Alston and Augusta Savage helped him learn. These teachers encouraged him to keep studying and growing. Harlem was a very important place for Black artists to train. Because of these teachers, Lawrence became a master of his craft.

One of his most famous works is The Migration Series. This series has 60 different panels. It tells the story of the Great Migration, when many African Americans moved from the South to the North. He was only 23 years old when he gained national fame for this work. The Phillips Collection and the Museum of Modern Art bought the panels. He also painted series about famous leaders like Toussaint L’Ouverture and Harriet Tubman. These works helped people understand important parts of history.

Lawrence's impact on the world of art is still felt today. He spent 16 years as a professor at the University of Washington. He also taught at Black Mountain College. Many great museums now keep his paintings in their collections. For example, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum hold his work. One of his paintings, titled "The Builders," even hangs in the White House. His art connects the past to the present through beautiful colors and shapes.

Jacob Lawrence was a prominent twentieth-century American painter.

He is celebrated for portraying African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence developed a unique artistic style he called "dynamic cubism." This style drew inspiration from European modernism and West African and Meso-American art. He used this approach to bring the African-American experience to life. His work often featured blacks and browns paired with very vivid colors. Through his art, he explored the history and the struggles of his people.

Lawrence’s method often involved creating narrative series. A series is a group of paintings that tells a single story. He began this approach with biographical accounts of important figures from the African diaspora. At age 21, he painted 41 panels about the Haitian general Toussaint L’Ouverture. He later created series about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. These works used crisp shapes and dynamic patterns to convey meaning. He often used revealing postures and gestures to show emotion. His wife, Gwendolyn Knight, helped him prepare the gesso panels for his paintings. She also contributed to the captions for his multi-painting works.

One of his most significant technical processes involved using tempera. Tempera is a water-based medium that dries very rapidly. Because of this, Lawrence had to plan all his paintings in advance. He applied a single color across all scenes to maintain tonal consistency. He would finish one color before moving to the next. This method helped his large series feel unified and rhythmic. This careful planning allowed him to manage complex stories across many panels. His ability to work with this limited medium created remarkable color harmonies.

His most famous achievement is "The Migration Series." This set consists of 60 panels completed between 1940 and 1941. It depicts the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. This series brought Lawrence national recognition at age 23. He became the first African-American artist represented by a New York gallery. The series was purchased jointly by two major institutions. The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., holds the odd-numbered paintings. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York holds the even-numbered paintings.

Lawrence’s life was shaped by the environment of Harlem. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1917. After moving to Harlem, he attended classes at the Utopia Children's Center. He later studied at the Harlem Art Workshop under Charles Alston. The sculptor Augusta Savage also played a key role in his training. She secured him a scholarship to the American Artists School. He also held a paid position with the Works Progress Administration. Harlem provided essential training for many Black artists in the United States.

During World War II, Lawrence served in the United States Coast Guard. He worked as a public affairs specialist on the USCGC Sea Cloud. This was the first racially integrated crew in the Coast Guard. He produced 48 paintings while documenting the war, but these works were lost. After the war, he received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1949, he spent eleven months at Hillside Hospital in Queens. During this time, he created his "Hospital Series." These works focused on the emotional states of the patients.

Lawrence also explored American history through his "Struggle" series. This 30-panel work was produced between 1954 and 1956. It depicted historical scenes from 1775 to 1817. Instead of traditional titles, he labeled each panel with a quote. The series included references to the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. It also highlighted neglected figures, such as Margaret Cochran Corbin. Due to the politics of the 1950s, the series was not bought by a museum. Instead, it was sold to a private collector. Some panels were lost, while others were only rediscovered recently in 2017, 2020, and 2021.

Beyond painting, Lawrence was a dedicated educator and author. He spent 16 years as a professor at the University of Washington. He also taught at Black Mountain College and the New School for Social Research. Lawrence used his art to create books for children. He illustrated works about Harriet Tubman and Aesop's Fables. His art remains in many prestigious permanent collections. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum. His 1947 painting "The Builders" is even displayed in the White House.