200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States
Since 1958 to 1970, Jacob held the post of a teacher at Pratt Institute.
72 5th Ave, New York, NY 10011, United States
Since 1966 to 1969, Lawrence taught at New School for Social Research.
Seattle, Washington, United States
In 1969, the University of Washington in Seattle offered him a full professorship, which he accepted. Lawrence held the post of a Professor of Art until 1983.
1947
Lawrence, in New York in 1947, with his wife, the painter Gwendolyn Knight, who assisted him with the series.
1979
Jacob Lawrence in the studio, 1979.
1971
1083 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, United States
In 1971, Jacob was made an associate member of the National Academy of Design.
1983
633 West 155th Street, New York, NY, 10032, United States
In 1983, Lawrence was made a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1995
136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
In 1995, he became a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Spingarn Medal
National Medal of Arts
Washington Medal of Merit
1947
Lawrence, in New York in 1947, with his wife, the painter Gwendolyn Knight, who assisted him with the series.
1979
Jacob Lawrence in the studio, 1979.
Spingarn Medal
1083 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, United States
In 1971, Jacob was made an associate member of the National Academy of Design.
633 West 155th Street, New York, NY, 10032, United States
In 1983, Lawrence was made a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters.
National Medal of Arts
136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
In 1995, he became a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Washington Medal of Merit
200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States
Since 1958 to 1970, Jacob held the post of a teacher at Pratt Institute.
72 5th Ave, New York, NY 10011, United States
Since 1966 to 1969, Lawrence taught at New School for Social Research.
Seattle, Washington, United States
In 1969, the University of Washington in Seattle offered him a full professorship, which he accepted. Lawrence held the post of a Professor of Art until 1983.
(After World War I, large numbers of African Americans beg...)
After World War I, large numbers of African Americans began leaving their homes in the rural South in search of employment, and a better life, in the industrial cities of the North like Chicago and Pittsburgh. Jacob Lawrence chronicled their journey of hope in his sixty-panel Migration Series, a flowing narrative sequence of paintings that can now be found divided between the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection. In this profound picture book, Lawrence brings all those landmark paintings together and pairs them with poetic text that further explores the experience of those enduring this mass exodus. From dealing with poor working conditions and competition for living space to widespread prejudice and racism, this is the story of strength, courage, and hope of the more than six million African Americans who were trying to build better lives for themselves and their families. This book features an introduction from Lawrence — whose family was part of this great migration — about its personal significance as well as a poem by Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064434281/?tag=2022091-20
1993
Jacob Lawrence was born on September 7, 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. He was a son of Jacob Lawrence and Rose Lee (Armstead) Lawrence, whose marriage ended in divorce in 1924. The oldest of three siblings, Lawrence and his brother and sister were placed in foster care in Philadelphia from 1927 to 1930, while his mother worked in New York City. At the age of thirteen, children were reunited with their mother, who relocated the family to the Harlem.
Lawrence dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen to pursue an artistic career. In 1937, he studied art under the guidance of Charles Alston at the Harlem Art Workshop in New York City. Also, Jacob attended Harlem Community Art Center and American Artists School.
The painter received many honorary degrees from different educational institutions, including Doctor of Fine Arts from Denison University (1970), Doctor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute (1972), Doctor of Humane Letters from Howard University (1985), Doctor of Humane Letters from Tulane University (1989) and others.
Early in his lifetime, Jacob worked as a printer, newspaper deliverer and construction laborer in order to support his family. Also, in his early years, Lawrence was so keen to learn about the history of art, that he would walk from his home in Harlem to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1935, he met Charles Seifert, lecturer and historian, who allowed Lawrence access to his personal library of African and African-American literature and encouraged Lawrence to seek out the textual resources on African history in the Arthur Schomburg collection at the 135th street branch of the New York Public Library (present-day the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture). Sources Lawrence studied in the Schomburg collection became the basis for his most well-known and best-regarded works: his historical works in series.
In 1938, he secured a position in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Federal Art Project (FAP)'s easel division. In 1940, Lawrence received a $1,500 fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to complete, what would become one of his most acclaimed works, his 60-panel "The Migration of the Negro" series (1940-1941). "The Migration of the Negro" was notable for its artistic achievements and the professional opportunities it afforded Lawrence.
In October 1943, Jacob was drafted in the United States Coast Guard and served with the first racially integrated crew on the USCGC Sea Cloud, under Carlton Skinner. During that time, he didn't stop painting and produced 48 works, all of which were lost.
In 1944, the painter held his solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It was MoMA's first solo exhibition of an African-American artist. In 1946, Lawrence was appointed a teacher at Black Mountain College. In 1946 and 1947, he received a Guggenheim Foundation grant to paint the War series and in 1947, Fortune Magazine commissioned him to create ten paintings, examining postwar conditions in the American south. His next major series was "Struggle: From the History of the American People", produced in 1955-1956.
During his lifetime, Jacob held many teaching positions. Between 1958-1970, he taught at Pratt Institute. During the period from 1966 to 1969, Jacob worked at the New School for Social Research in New York City. In 1969, the University of Washington in Seattle offered him a full professorship, which he accepted. Lawrence held the post of a Professor of Art until 1983.
In 1999, together with his wife Gwendolyn, Lawrence co-founded the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation to promote and support American art.
The artist continued to paint until a few weeks before his death.
Jacob gained prominence for his artistic achievements, being one of the first African-American artists to achieve widespread, mainstream acclaim. He was the first African-American artist, whose works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. "The Migration of the Negro" series is one of his well-known works.
In 1999, he co-founded the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation.
Also, he attained many awards, including Guggenheim fellowship (1946), Spingarn Medal (1970), National Medal of Arts (1990), Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence (1996), Washington Medal of Merit (1998) and others.
His works are kept in the collections of different museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and others.
(After World War I, large numbers of African Americans beg...)
1993Bootleg Whiskey—You Can Buy Bootleg Whiskey for Twenty-five Cents a Quart, from the series Harlem
Home Chores
Dreams No. 2
Strike
To Preserve Their Freedom (From the Toussaint L'Ouverture Series)
War Series: Shipping Out
Self-portrait
Vaudeville
The Photographer
The Swearing In No. 1
Workshop (Builders #1)
War Series: Alert
War Series: The Letter
Firewood #55
The Apartment
Bar and Grill
No. 2, Main Control Panel, Nerve Center of Ship
The Studio
The Seamstress
Tombstones
War Series: Another Patrol
Pool Parlor
War Series: Beachhead
The Migration of the Negro, Panel 52
The Builders
Confrontation at the Bridge from the series Not Songs of Loyalty Alone: The Struggle for Personal Freedom
Windows
The Migration of the Negro, Panel 1
Man on a Scaffold
War Series: Victory
The Shoemaker
New Jersey, from the United States Series
The Library
Harriet Tubman Series (Panel #4)
Games - Sleight of Hand
Taboo
Pool Parlor
Quotations:
"My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop an approach and philosophy about life - if he has developed this philosophy, he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas."
"This is my genre...the happiness, tragedies, and the sorrows of mankind as realized in the teeming black ghetto."
"All artists are constantly looking for something and they don't always know what."
"I would describe my work as expressionist. The expressionist point of view is stressing your own feelings about something."
"If at times my productions do not express the conventionally beautiful, there is always an effort to express the universal beauty of man's continuous struggle to lift his social position and to add dimension to his spiritual being."
""Humanism" is to be human, to think, to analyze, and to probe. To respond and to be stimulated by all living things - beasts, fowl, and fishes. To respond through touch, sight, smell, and sound to all things in nature - both organic and inorganic-to colors, shapes, and textures - to not only look at a blade of grass but to really see a blade of grass. These things, to me, are what life and living are all about. I would call it "Humanism.""
"The Human subject is the most important thing. My work is abstract in the sense of having been designed and composed, but it is not abstract in the sense of having no human content I want to communicate. I want the idea to strike right away."
"I have an assuredness of myself. I never protect myself against it."
In 1971, Jacob was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1979.
Jacob married Gwendolyn Knight, a painter, on July 24, 1941.
