Analysis Of Bar And Grill By Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence one of the most notable painters of African American life in the 20th century, he drew his inspiration from the blacks struggle and of triumph referred to his style as "dynamic cubism.” Lawrence’s “Bar and Grill” created harmony between form and content utilizing bold colors, two-dimensional, flat patterns, angular planes and tilted viewpoints. Lawrence’s expression of "the life of Negroes in New Orleans” is an expressionism and social realism style chronicle poverty, injustice and racism. "Bar and Grill" show the interior of a café with a floor-to-ceiling dividing wall separating whites from the blacks. A bartender was reading a newspaper and the ceiling fan strongly expressing the segregation of blacks and their status. His …show more content…
The alternating heights, colors, and widths of the patrons create the illusion of distance and move the eye around the picture plane. For more than 65 years, Jacob Lawrence an impassioned observer and storyteller. Lawrence's work touched on the reality of the disparity, drawing inspiration for a subject matter directly from the struggle and life of Blacks in America. Lawrence’s work embodied the triumphs and tragedies of America's struggle for freedom and justice from the Civil War period of the 1860s to the civil rights campaign of the 1960s -- to the end of the twentieth century. Lawrence's paintings made the realities of race and racial differences visible in the process of Americanization addressing many of the social and philosophical concerns regarding the lives and histories of African Americans, including migration, manual labor, war, family values, and education in the 20th century. Labeled a "storyteller, artist" he used his craft as a social commentary, criticizing social injustice. Lawrence used abstraction and vibrant colors to convey socially charged messages. Portraying the disparity of a social situation and the need for awareness and change while showcasing aspects of the human