Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series - 1940-41

Jacob Lawrence - The Migration Series No. 12. “The railroad stations were at times so over-packed with people leaving that special guards had to be called in to keep order.” - 1941 - casein tempera on hardboard - 12 x 18 in. - The Museum of Modern Art, New York.A sixty-panel series known as the Migration Series is shared between MoMA and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Artist Jacob 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.