Jacob Lawrence And The Migration of the Negro
What makes Jacob Lawrence's artwork powerful is that it is a voice of Black people and offers a complete view of the African American experience. It goes without saying that Mr. Lawrence presents the lives of his people through highly skilled paintings and artistry, yet he is not only a painter. Because of the material and manner in which Jacob Lawrence paints, he is an activist, storyteller and philosopher. The images in just one of his paintings dare to say what most people are afraid to acknowledge, generate flashbacks and the emotions that accompany flashbacks, and make one dissect and investigate their convictions.Jacob Lawrence was the firs African American artist to receive sustained support from mainstream art museums. Even before he was 21, Mr. Lawrence had made a name for himself as an artist who would reveal and declare the importance of the African American Experience. In 1939 his series of panels of Haitian general, Toussaint L'Overture, was shown in an exhibit of African-American artists so-sponsored by the Harmon Foundation and he Baltimore Museum of Art. (Lewis, pg. 129) Lawrence's narrative series about the dynamic abolitionist Frederick Douglass and angelic free
His work is of an activist making comment on the African American struggle. During the time period that African Americans were migrating race riots were very numerous all over the North. Their bodies are more familiar with a fighting position than the Black figure's body who is sprawled in a very angular and robotic position. Knowing that it was a depiction of life up North the Black Southerner might not have been ready to make the move. The discord that was present between Black and White workers set off violent interactions. Lawrence's painting says that the North is as much a negative time for Blacks as the South that they were fleeing was. Lawrence provided work that people wanted to see and ideas that people were not familiar with. He holds onto the stick with both hands as if he is prepared to swing for dear life. The Black figure is holding a red stick. dom fighter Harriet Tubman soon followed the panels of L'Overture. If Lawrence had given a full frontal view of this episode the power of his piece would have been lost.
Common topics in this essay:
Label Black,
Negro Panel,
Jacob Lawrence's,
African American,
Nesbett Dubois,
Jacob Lawrence,
L'Overture Lewis,
Migration Negro,
Rights Movement,
Renaissance Lewis,
jacob lawrence,
african american,
migration negro,
lawrence's painting,
red stick,
dubois pg,
nesbett dubois pg,
nesbett dubois,
lewis pg,
130 biographical compositions,
white workers,
black worker,
pg 130 biographical,
african american experience,
lewis pg 130,
|
Acceptance Essays
