Existing comment:
Jacob Lawrence
The Migration Series, 1940-41
Series of sixty works (thirty in the Museum's collection)
In these works, Lawrence focuses on the Great Migration, the exodus of African Americans from the rural South to northern and western cities beginning during World War I. The son of migrants himself, Lawrence researched extensively before starting to paint, distilling this relocation of millions into intimate vignettes. The series contains sixty panels in all, thirty of which appear here. Through an unusual decision to split the work in half, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, acquired the odd-numbered panels and MoMA the even-numbered ones. Using vibrant patterns, blocks of color, and pared-down, angular figures and forms, Lawrence tells a clear story of a historic event. |