Lawrence, Jacob Armstead

Impact on the world

Completed the 60-panel 'Migration Series' in 1940-41, depicting the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, a work that gained him national recognition at age 23 and made him, through its exhibition at Manhattan's Downtown Gallery, the first African American artist formally represented by a New York gallery; he developed a distinctive style he called 'dynamic cubism,' drawing on West African and Mesoamerican visual traditions to depict both historical and everyday Black life.

Life & background

Raised partly in foster care before reconnecting with his mother in Harlem, Lawrence dropped out of school at 16 to work in a laundromat and printing plant, continuing his art education through the Harlem Art Workshop under Charles Alston, who in turn connected him to sculptor Augusta Savage's Harlem Community Art Center; Savage secured him both a scholarship to the American Artists School and a paid Works Progress Administration position, opportunities that proved foundational to his career. His 1940-41 'Migration Series,' 60 tempera panels chronicling hundreds of thousands of African Americans relocating from the rural South to the urban North after World War I, brought him national attention at just 23 years old and secured his representation by Manhattan's Downtown Gallery, making him the first African American artist formally represented by a New York gallery. He married fellow Savage student and painter Gwendolyn Knight in 1941, who assisted with preparing his painting panels throughout his career, and went on to a long career including 16 years teaching at the University of Washington, an illustrated children's book on Harriet Tubman, and a 1983 series responding to John Hersey's 'Hiroshima.'

Sources

1. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); The Phillips Collection; Whitney Museum of American Art