The Harlem Renaissance and Jacob Lawrence

Tombstones - Jacob Lawrence - 1942 - Gouache on paper - 28 3/4 x 20 1/2 in (73 x 52.1 cm) - Whitney Museum of American Art, New York“The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African-American social thought that was expressed through the visual arts, as well as through music, literature, theater and dance. Musical artists included the likes of Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, and Billie Holiday. Important literary figures were Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and W.E.B. DuBois. Actor Paul Robeson) and dancer Josephine Baker were also significant figures. Centered in the Harlem district of New York City, the movement had a profound influence across the United States and even in other parts of the world. Visual artists at the core of the Harlem Renaissance movement included William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones and the sculptor and printmaker Sargent Claude Johnson. Other prominent artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance included Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley and Romare Bearden..." (who we recently featured on What About Art?).

The work of Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) “...combines realism with abstract decorative design and deals primarily with the black experience in America. In narrative series of paintings, he has highlighted the lives of outstanding blacks and chronicled contemporary black history.” READ MORE...

The Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Virtual Resource Center  has an enormous amount of information about Jacob Lawrence and his wife Gwen (also an artist), plus a searchable archive of nearly 1,000 artworks.