Jacob Lawrence :: essays research papers

Jacob LawrenceJacob Lawrences unique c beer has earned him a National Medal Of humanistic discipline , election to the National Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design,a National Council of the Arts commisionership, and dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including the NAACPs Spingarn Medal. His paintings has been freatured in several major art exhibitions and many various museums. Lawrences p arnts came from the s pophwestward but they moved to Harlem where Lawrence grew up. Lawrence was born in 1917 and grew up in Harlem during the broad Depression. He had many extraordinary educational oppurtunities as well as his first employment as an artist. In the studio of his mentor, Charles Alston, young Lawrence variegated while the Harlem Renaissance was blooming with a generation of young artists and writers. He studied at the Harlem Art Workshop from 1932-1937 and at the American Artists work from 1937-1939. In the 1930s there was two main art groups,rea lism art and abstractionism art. Lawrence rejected both of them and made up his own style of art. His paintings are alive with human figures, usually African Americans,engaged in all different types of activities. He dipicted the figures in his paintings with dignity and grace. He got his ideas from several different sources. He used repetitive paterns and a lot of different colors and invention which are commonly found in a quilt or an African textile. He made up to as many as 60 paintings which are each telling a fabrication and the messages are usually of human triumph over oppression and injustice. Although his paintings often mend to the history and experience of disgraceful people their themes are universal. Lawrence allso made murals for his story telling. Throughout most of the 20th century , art institutions within black communities were the only places that exhibited the work of black artists. If other galleries did have black exhibits they were singled out as "Neg ro artists" or "Negro Art". Without gallery exposure, they were seldom noticed by influential people or obtain steal prices. In 1941 Alain Locke, a friend of Lawrences introduced Lawrences Migration series to the owner New Yorks business district Gallery Edith Halpert. Edith immediately organized an exhibition for Lawrences art work, and Lawrence joined the allot few group of artists she presented, which included Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, and Ben Shahn. Lawrences Migration series was purchased and divided between the Museum of new-fashioned Art and the Phillips Collection.