A Celebration of Great African-American Artists of the 20th Century
Jacob Lawrence
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jacob Lawrence achieved early recognition for his talents. A Harlem resident who participated in the WPA art program during the Depression, he grew up knowing several members of the Harlem cultural renaissance. His historical subjects include Toussaint L'Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and the Great Migration. In 1944 he became the first African-American to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Lawrence attended the American Artists School and the Harlem Art Workshop. He taught painting at Pratt Institute and the University of Washington in Seattle, becoming professor emeritus in 1983. He is married to artist Gwen Knight-Lawrence.
Affiliation: Pratt Institute, University of Washington
 |
 |
The Builders, 1974 In the early 1970s, Jacob Lawrence began work on the theme of builders, a subject that would preoccupy him for some time. In his own words, this major body of work "came from my own observations of the human condition. If you look at a work closely, you see that it incorporates things other than the buildings, like a street scene of a family." Lawrence enjoys the inherent symbolism and the multiple meanings of the word building." Here, the well-dressed family in the foreground helps construct society, as do the literal builders working behind them. |
Romare Bearden
Selma Burke
Elizabeth Catlett
Alex Corbbrey
Sam Gilliam
Lois Mailou Jones
Paul F. Keene, Jr.
Gwen Knight-Lawrence
Samella Lewis
Charles White
Hale Woodruff