Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence, born in 1917 in Atlantic City and raised in Harlem, became one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Coming of age during the Harlem Renaissance, Lawrence developed a bold, modernist style that fused African American history with striking visual clarity. He often painted in narrative series, using multiple panels to tell big stories, and became known for transforming historical and everyday Black experiences into vibrant, accessible art.

Lawrence’s The Migration of the Negro Series, a sequence of panels that capture the massive relocation of Black families to Northern cities.

Lawrence’s breakout work, 'The Migration Series' (1940–41), traced the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. With sixty panels painted in tempera on hardboard, he depicted hope, hardship, and resilience through flat shapes, vivid color, and sharp lines. The series was an immediate sensation—shown in New York’s Downtown Gallery and jointly acquired by MoMA and The Phillips Collection, making Lawrence the first African American artist represented by a major commercial gallery.

Frederick Douglass Series by Jacob Lawrence, using vivid colors and simple figures to tell the abolitionist’s powerful life story.

Through series on figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Toussaint Louverture, Lawrence centered Black agency in American history. His 1954–56 project 'Struggle: From the History of the American People' challenged Cold War patriotism by depicting lesser-known stories of revolution and resistance, often featuring women and people of color left out of traditional narratives. He wasn’t just making art, he was rewriting who gets to be remembered.

Harriet Tubman Series, portraying Tubman’s courageous missions along the Underground Railroad in Lawrence’s signature flat-color style.

A lifelong educator, Lawrence taught at institutions like Black Mountain College and the University of Washington, where he remained until his death in 2000. His legacy lies not only in his paintings but in his commitment to using art as a civic tool — teaching, testifying, and making history visible. For Lawrence, painting wasn’t just about aesthetics, it was about truth, struggle, and the dignity of the human experience.

Jacob Lawrence, smiling and seated in his studio, surrounded by paints and a partially completed canvas full of bold shapes.

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Dig Deeper

Amid the McCarthy hearings and the launch of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, painter Jacob Lawrence sought to frame early American history the way he saw it. His ensuing work, the sprawling series “Struggle,” has been reassembled and is now on a national tour, with its first stop at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

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