The Harlem Renissance: Who was Jacob Lawrence?

Jacob Lawrence, born on September 7th 1917, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, was one of the first recognised African American artists in the United States, making him a prominent figure in the art world. Shortly after moving to Harlem at the age of 13, Jacob Lawrence discovered his interest in art due to Harlem’s culture, which served as his primary inspiration in many of his artworks. Jacob Lawrence’s paintings are famously known for portraying the everyday lives and struggles of African Americans. He tells these stories through using vibrant colours and cubic shapes in his paintings. Jacob Lawrence is an artist you should know, as he was one of the first African American artists to gain mainstream attention, and many of his paintings tell the unknown stories of African Americans.  

Most Notable Work  

The Migration Series is Jacob Lawrence’s best-known work, which consists of 60 panels. This series of paintings tells the story of millions of African Americans leaving the South to go to the industrial North for economic, educational opportunities and to escape racial violence. The  

Migration series is told in 60 panels, as it tells multiple complex stories of the struggles African Americans faced during the Great Migration. Each painting is accompanied by a descriptive caption since Lawrence had an in-depth knowledge of the Great Migration, as he conducted extensive research on this topic. The first half of the Migration series explores the economic hardship African Americans faced in the South, and the second half explores their life as migrants in the North. Hope is one of the key themes portrayed in the Migration series, as many African Americans migrating to the North had hope for a better life. The Migration series is significant as it was one of the first mainstream artworks to highlight the struggles that African Americans had to endure, especially at a time when Black voices were often silenced.  

Panel 33: ‘People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North’   

Legacy of Jacob Lawrence  

Despite Jacob Lawrence’s death on 9th June 2000, he still remains one of the most notable artists, as he was one of the first African Americans to have his work acquired by The Museum of Modern Art and to be represented by a New York commercial gallery. Lawrence’s success in the mainstream art world created more opportunities for Black artists to be recognised and to exhibit their work in white-dominated galleries. Furthermore, he has influenced and inspired many Black artists, such as Faith Ringgold, to tell stories about the African American experience through their paintings. Lawrence’s paintings still remained celebrated, as in 2017, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, Seattle Art Museum showed the Migration Series as a whole.  

This event was special as the Migration Series was split between New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection, showing the series as a whole drew numerous people, demonstrating that his work is still relevant today. Jacob Lawrence was more than an artist; he was someone who documented the history of African Americans through his paintings and paved the way for many Black artists.