Jacob Lawrence Among the social conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts 1940-41

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 520 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

These thirty paintings constitute half of the sixty-panel Migration Series, shared between MoMA and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Lawrence took as his subject the exodus of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities during and after World War I, when industry's demand for workers attracted them in vast numbers. As the son of migrants, Lawrence had a personal connection to the topic. He researched the subject extensively and wrote the narrative before making the paintings, taking seriously the dual roles of educator and artist.

Lawrence was influenced by the work of the Mexican muralists and earlier artists such as Goya, but he drew his stylistic inspiration primarily from the Harlem community in which he lived. The vivid pattern and color—created in tempera paint as Lawrence worked on all the panels at once—reflect an aesthetic that itself had migrated from the South.

Gallery label from 2012.
Medium
Casein tempera on hardboard
Dimensions
18 x 12" (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
Credit
Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy
Object number
28.1942.7
Copyright
© 2024 Jacob Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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