The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of the work of Jacob Lawrence from November 8, 2001 through February 3, 2002, entitled Over the Line Showcasing over 200 works, ranging from those of his early twenties to just before his death, it was the largest retrospective of his work ever held. Throughout his illustrious career, which spanned seven decades, Lawrence's paintings depicted the lives and struggles of African Americans and working people.
Like so many others at that time, the Lawrence family had been part of the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the rural South to the major northern industrial centers. Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917. His family moved to Easton, PA amid the racial turbulence of 1919, and then to Philadelphia. Lawrence's mother left Jacob and his siblings in foster care while she worked in Harlem until she had saved up enough money to send for them. When, at the age of thirteen he finally arrived in Harlem, it was during the onset of the Great Depression. He was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, and the frenzied pace of the city. This had a profound psychological influence on him, to which he made reference throughout his career.
Lawrence first began to study and make art in the after school program in which his mother enrolled him. It was here that he began to experiment with flat geometric shapes and dynamic compositions, painted with the inexpensive tempera, casein, and gouache paints that he would use for the rest of his career. It was also here that he received the tutelage of Charles Alston, a prominent African American painter. In his later studies with Alston, as part of the Work Progress Administration (WPA,) he would come to meet the famous artists from the community associated with Studio 306, including his future wife, Gwendolyn Knight.
Lawrence's art was as much influenced by the atmosphere of Harlem itself as he was by the artists in the community. He recounted that: "Our homes were very decorative, full of pattern, like inexpensive throw rugs, all around the house. It must have had some influence, all this color and everything. Because we were so poor the people used this as a means of brightening their life. I used to do bright patterns after these throw rugs; I got ideas from them, the arabesques, the movement and so on."
His earliest paintings depicting street scenes in Harlem capture both the vitality and the naked exploitation of life there. He drew attention to such basic realities as inadequate housing, prostitution, and the plight of black women forced to work in domestic service for low wages, despite their education. Art critic Oliver Larkin pointed out that "to praise Lawrence for his ingenious patterns was to belittle their meaning as the shapes of tortured and congested living, the arabesques of white brutality."
At the age of 21, Lawrence had his first solo exhibit at the Harlem YMCA. In 1941, he completed work on a series of sixty paintings entitled "The Migration of the Negro," in which he detailed the historical setting of the Great Migration, both from his own experience and from his research. All of the panels were painted simultaneously, with the same colors, in order to make it visually a single work, and each panel contained a brief narrative. The series depicted both the conditions and the social forces that prompted African Americans to travel north, and the hardships that they faced when they arrived. That same year, Lawrence became the first African-American artist to be represented by a downtown gallery.
"The Migration of the Negro," in which he detailed the historical setting of the Great Migration, both from his own experience and from his research. All of the panels were painted simultaneously, with the same colors, in order to make it visually a single work, and each panel contained a brief narrative. The series depicted both the conditions and the social forces that prompted African Americans to travel north, and the hardships that they faced when they arrived. That same year, Lawrence became the first African American artist to be represented by a downtown gallery.
In 1949, while Lawrence was at the peak of his success, the pressures of his career and of success caused him to have a psychological breakdown. During an eleven month stay at Hillside Hospital at Queens, his paintings began to focus on mental illness. His forms became more fractured, edgy, and geometric. This stylistic change continued into the 1950s, even as Abstract Expressionism dominated the national scene.
One recurring theme in Lawrence's work during this period is that of African- American performers. Influenced by Ralph Ellison's book, The Invisible Man, these works are personal meditations on the dual identity of the Black artist. As the civil rights struggles of the 60s heated up, Lawrence's work turned to themes of integration and desegregation, poverty, and the psychological effects of racism.
After returning from an eight month stay in Nigeria, Lawrence began to expand on the theme of the builders, which he had painted as early as 1946. This would become the primary theme of Lawrence's work for the rest of his career. In them, blacks and whites worked together in tool shops and on buildings. These paintings were not only depictions of the act of labor, but metaphors for cooperation and progress.
Following its run at the Whitney Museum, "Over The Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence" is scheduled to be exhibited in the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. New Yorkers can continue to view Jacob Lawrence's work in the Times Square subway platform, located between 42nd and Broadway. The recently unveiled mosaic, measuring 6' tall by 36' wide, was completed after Lawrence's death with the help of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, based on his design.
Brandon Slattery is Chair of the Pratt Institute of Design YCL club and is a member of the YCL National Council.
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