Jacob Lawrence - Masterpiece Curations

Jacob Lawrence is known as a dynamic cubist. Introduce your children to this African American artist with this free homeschool artist study.

“When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.” ~Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was born September 7, 1917, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the hopes of finding a better life, his parents moved his family up north. Sadly, his parents divorced in 1924, which forced his mother to have to put Jacob and his two younger siblings in foster care. But when he was thirteen, Lawrence and his siblings were able to move to New York City and live with their mother again.

Jacob Lawrence liked to make art even from a young age, and would use crayons to draw pictures and copy the patterns of his mother’s carpets. Eventually, he began to attend art classes after school, where one of his teachers noted that he had great potential in art.

When he was sixteen, Jacob dropped out of school and began to work at a laundromat and a printing plant. He continued to work with art and before long, he was able to attend classes at the Harlem Art Workshop and the Harlem Community Art Center. When he was twenty-three, he finished painting one of his most famous works: the Migration Series, in which depicted the story of thousands of African-Americans who moved to the North after the first World War.

***The Migration of the Negro, Panel 1***

In 1941, Jacob married fellow artist, Gwendolyn Knight. Two years later, during the Second World War, he was drafted into the United States Coast Guard. While in service, he painted 48 pictures depicting his life and experiences during his travels. Unfortunately, these paintings have all been lost over time. But after returning from the war, Lawrence painted a series of pictures that became known as the War Series, which depicted his first-hand experiences throughout the war.

Jacob Lawrence frequently painted historical events and contemporary scenes from African-American urban life. It wasn’t long before he gained recognition for his style of using bright colors and distinct shapes and patterns. Lawrence noted that he was inspired by the colors and decorations in his mother’s home as well as Harlem itself, referring to his style as “dynamic cubism.”

Jacob and his wife continued to live in New York until 1970, when he received an invitation from the University of Washington to teach there. So they moved to Seattle and he taught as an art professor for fifteen years.