Jacob Lawrence
@jacoblawrence.bsky.social
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Fan account of Jacob Lawrence, an African-American painter known for his portrayal of African-American life. 1917-2000 Automated #artbot thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
![“I paint the things I have experienced,” Jacob Lawrence stated. Raised in Harlem, Lawrence studied at various federally funded community cultural centers and art workshops, where his talent was quickly recognized. The young artist soon applied his bold, unique style to the creation of narrative cycles devoted to African American history, leaders, and life. His sixty-panel Migration series (1940–41), depicting the resettlement of blacks from the rural South to the industrial North in the first half of the twentieth century, debuted in 1941 at the prestigious Downtown Gallery in New York. This exhibition bought national attention to the artist, then only in his early twenties. The cycle was acquired later by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
In addition to his various series, Lawrence also executed individual genre scenes, such as The Wedding, throughout his long career. With its bright, flat colors, bold patterning, and economical yet suggestive forms, this vibrant composition shows a bride and groom, flanked by two attendants, standing before a stern-faced minister. This arrangement makes us, like the attendants, participants in a major life event. Befitting both the solemnity and joy of a wedding, the composition combines the symmetrical rigidity of the standing figures with a riotous profusion of intensely colored stained-glass panels and flowers. The Wedding demonstrates well what one writer described as Lawrence’s unwavering commitment “to make his subject a testament, an expression of his belief in [humanity’s] continuing strength.”
Restricted gift of Mary P. Hines in memory of her mother, Frances W. Pick](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zuq372jxlwolmzdbhjyt2jxk/bafkreictceoyjnfjyix2vryo2x5o6yymh7wjms734seyn4y4jhdl55ahbe)
