Jacob Lawrence Migration Of Art Analysis

Lawrence’s Migration of Art Born on September 7th, 1917, Jacob Lawrence was born to be great. His early years of his life were spent moving around, until he and his family settled in Harlem. During his teenage years, he had spent time working on his art, and got his best ideas right in Harlem, where he was grasping visuals and inspiration. As a teenager, he was in different art programs where his art style was already set, and his mentors noticed this early on. Mattern implies that, “Charles Alston said of Lawrence ‘It would be a mistake to try and teach Jake. He was teaching himself… all he needed was encouragement and technical information”(7).This quote shows that young Jacob Lawrence was an impassioned artist from the start, and was on the path to success. It would be insulting to say that Lawrence’s style of art isn’t art. His collections of art all tell a story of the black community, and what life was like during the 20th century. In the case of an art critique, the simple strokes of a paintbrush can easily tell an impassioned journey, but in Jacob Lawrence’s case, the placing of tempera strips shows an informative yet elevated view of the world around him, Harlem. Lawrence was a special artist, whose technique was to draw on paper, and paint over that with a …show more content…
The Migration series is closely related to Lawrence’s experiences because this happened in his life, where his family moved from the south to Harlem. They left poverty and oppression to go to a proud and sharp Harlem (Glassman). In one of the paintings “They were very poor”, the family is at the table, with bowls that seem empty. Their facial expressions are pessimistic and saddening, as they didn’t have the means for a better meal. This is just one painting of the series, yet it already shows a concerning view as to how life was during the Harlem