Jacob Armstead Lawrence (1917-2000)
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Jacob Armstead Lawrence was an important African American painter, known to many as the most esteemed painter of the Harlem Renaissance school of art. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and later moving to Harlem, Lawrence started taking art classes at an after school program when he was 13. After dropping out from high school at the age of sixteen, Lawrence took art classes at the Harlem Art Workshop taught by well known African American artist, Charles Alston. Lawrence later got a scholarship to the American Artists School, thanks to sculptor, Augusta Savage. When he graduated in 1939, his work was funded by the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. Painting in his own individual style of modernism, he began creating multiple series or artworks, painting 30 or more paintings on one subject. His best-known series, Migration of the Negroor simply The Migration Series, was completed in 1941. The series was exhibited at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African-American to join the gallery. His series of paintings of the Haitian General, Toussaint L’Ouverture, was shown in an exhibit of African American artists at the Baltimore Museum of Art. His last public work, the mosaic mural, New York in Transit, was installed in October 2001 in the Times Square subway station in New York City. Lawrence referred to his style of painting as “Dynamic Cubism.” The term, Dynamic Cubism is a combination of the flatness of the subjects and its simplistic design.
Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the experience of war around the world. He produced 48 paintings during this time, all of which have been lost.
When his tour of duty concluded, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship and painted his War Series. He was also invited by Josef Albers to teach the summer classes at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. It has been reported that Albers hired a private train car to transport Lawrence and his wife to Black Mountain College so they wouldn’t be forced to ride in the “colored” car when the train crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.
Though Jacob Lawrence was known to have suffered from bouts of severe depression, his career persevered and in 1971 he became a tenured professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and taught there until he retired. He painted until a few weeks before his death in 2000.
Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the experience of war around the world. He produced 48 paintings during this time, all of which have been lost.
When his tour of duty concluded, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship and painted his War Series. He was also invited by Josef Albers to teach the summer classes at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. It has been reported that Albers hired a private train car to transport Lawrence and his wife to Black Mountain College so they wouldn’t be forced to ride in the “colored” car when the train crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.
Though Jacob Lawrence was known to have suffered from bouts of severe depression, his career persevered and in 1971 he became a tenured professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and taught there until he retired. He painted until a few weeks before his death in 2000.