Jacob Lawrence

1162 Words5 Pages
The visual arts have a world wide variety of gifted talents that each artist possesses. Within the visual arts, each artist redefines the boundaries of art from the classic Victorian Era to mainstream art as what we call Abstract today. But visual arts do not set the limits to just art alone. The other artistic skills like the rhythm of dance, music, writing, and theater all bring the soulful creativeness that is upheld in each artist. Since creativity is the common phenomenon throughout the arts, it helps the artist explore the endless options that soar within their minds. Two visual artists that are well known throughout the art community have helped set the endless boundaries, as what we today define as art. Their names are, Pablo Picasso…show more content…
By age thirteen, he moved with his mom to Harlem. Thus were his intuitions of art begun. During his earlier childhood, his mother introduced him to visual arts. This period of his life he started drawing with crayons and mimic draw the things he would see. His teachers became impressed, thus his mom enrolling him into Utopia Children’s Center, which had an art class that was held after-school. Although his artistic skills were increasing, school was declining for him. According to Biography, “He dropped out of school at 16 but took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Aston and frequently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Having experienced classes with Charles Aston, this helped Jacob Lawrence further in life with his career. In 1937, Jacob Lawrence was able to go back to school by winning an art scholarship to the American Artist School in New York. By the time he graduated in 1939, he was funded by the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project. This helped him create his own style of modernism, which led to his famous series Migration of Negro or The Migration Series. According to Biography, “The series was exhibited at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African-American to join the gallery.” He was already making history at the young age of…show more content…
Jacob Lawrence has a strong connection towards the Harlem Renaissance. Other than him physically living during that time period, he was also inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. Jacob Lawrence admired the work of Aaron Douglass, who was called the “Father of African American Arts”. Aaron Douglas was a proud painter visual artist during the Harlem Renaissance. Aaron Douglas style and skills helped Jacob Lawrence surpass his ability to create meaningful artwork. The connection with Jacob Lawrence and the Harlem Renaissance is that it was the inspiration and fame that became the taboo of what every African American wanted during the Reconstruction
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