Jocob Lawrence

3 Pages 861 Words

African American Artist Jacob Lawrence’s work entitled “Tombstones”

With the Harlem Scene and culture as the primary source of encouragement, Jacob Lawrence possessed a profound understanding of black history that is not normally included in textbooks. Lawrence made exposing the reality of black history through art his life quest. His original intention was to provide African Americans with a sense of pride, accomplishment, and hope during a period in time where many African Americans were experiencing a multitude of extreme political, social economic and racial injustices.
One of the most famous works of Jacob Lawrence is titled “Tombstones,” and it was done in 1942, in Harlem, New York. Lawrence was the first African American to gain recognition in the world of American art with the Migration series. The main features or characteristics of the work of art are a strong sense of family and community. “Tombstones” belongs to the Social realists Movement period of art history. Lawrence, in fact, created his own distinct style, which was a new brand of modernism, revealing topics based on personal experience of Harlem and the lives and aspirations African Americans. He liked to call his style “dynamic cubism.” In all actuality, “Tombstones” is not a completed work, in a sense. In fact, it is just a piece of the completed work that brought Jacob Lawrence to a level recognition, which is called “The Migration of the Negro Panel,” or “The Migration Series.” The series was compiled of thirteen separate works that were placed together, that each represented different points of view about the positions of blacks. The topics were; Migration, Transition, Injustice, Struggle, Labor, Education, Discrimination, North/South, Women Workers, Family and Community (“Tombstones”), Neighborhood and Self.
During his career, Lawrence gad a fascination with movies during the Depression years, which...