Jacob Lawrence
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JACOB LAWRENCE's story is one of self-discovery, of integration with the world about him. He was a Negro. Born in Atlantic City in 1917, he grew up in Harlem where he lived in a settlement house. There was an art workshop and a young instructor. Lawrence began with poster colors, geometrical designs, flat areas. This pattern was right for him. The changes since had been in medium, to gouache, to casein tempera, to egg tempera. He learned through books and reproductions. He never saw an exhibition until he was eighteen.
His life had been a patchwork of difficulties and opportunities. He received a scholarship when he was twenty, had a job on the Federal Arts Project "during the transitional time when I finally knew I would become a painter," applied for a Rosenwald fellowship and received three altogether, from 1940 to 1942. On these grants he did the Migration Series, which he feels is his best work.
Lawrence began with an urge to speak of the Negro's situation, has broadened his horizon to take the human situation as his subject. He developed themes: his paintings, being figures of speech, can easily be continued into a series. This means that he was saying in paint what can also be said in words and he must justify the paint, making it the better language. He does this through condensation--"simple, flat, line and mass and no modeling, a pantomime of gesture to create a mood."
When he obtained a Rosenwald fellowship he moved away from his family into a studio. He married, and having done the Migration Series and a Harlem Series, he too migrated. He went south to the vicinity of Richmond, and then to New Orleans where he painted the John Brown Series. Here he had no oppressed feeling. "You don't go into a store or restaurant. You try not to involve yourself. You are on the alert."
During the war he was in the Coast Guard, a steward's mate, then a Public Relations Officer third class.
He was aboard troopships, and he saw the ports of England and France. He was able to paint, and a Coast Guard Series resulted. Later he produced a War Series, and he has since done a Hillside Hospital Series--works of exceptional concentration and power.
Lawrence was at one time interested in theatre scenery, and there is theatre in his art in the best sense. Reality is not presented visually but conveyed visually by the simplest means, and he achieves our absolute belief.
Lawrence: Earlier the local situation needed to be painted. Now, I may see something that develops an idea. It means something to me, but how can I express the idea? I try to get a symbol that expresses what I want to say. Figures writing on a blackboard: I want to say something about education.
A few years ago I was just interested in Negro themes --just that. Now I want to do American history: Washington, Lincoln--there are terrific things to do. A series of scenes from American history within the next five years.
Hope has broadened the scene. The statement is broader, even though it is the same statement.
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