Jacob Lawrence: Lawrenc Migration Of The Negro

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Jacob Lawrence was an African-American artist in the 20th Century who left many renditions of African-American life in a unique perspective. Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 7th 1917, to a low socioeconomic family. Lawrence at the age of seven was placed into foster care with his two younger siblings in Philadelphia. At thirteen Lawrence moved back with his mother who by this time had relocated to Harlem, New York. Harlem is where Lawrence was exposed to art, his mother enrolled him in the after school program at the Utopia Children Center where Lawrence chose art and was introduced Charles Alston. Lawrence dropped out of high school at sixteen and began taking classes at the Harlem Art Workshop which were being taught by his mentor Alston; Alston was a prominent member in the Harlem Renaissance.…show more content…
This narrative series was also known as The Migration and was compiled of sixty paintings illustrating the migration of southern rural African-Americans to the urban north between World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII). This Migration happened due to an influx in available jobs in factory's in the north. Jacob used color to unify the sixty individual paintings he used a uniform of colors. Lawrence worked on all the pieces simultaneously painting them by color. The series was painted using casein tempera on 12”x18” hardboard in both portrait and landscape positions. Lawrence uses his own unique style of which can only be described as slightly geometric. The Migration resonated with Lawrence on a personal level for multiple reason. Lawrence was the product of two migrants and constantly met people who migrated to Philadelphia and New York where he resided. Lawrence's Migration of the Negro was split into two halves. Even numbers going to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the odd numbers going to Phillips Collection in Washington

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