The Migration Series Panel 1 Jacob Lawrence 1940-41 The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. phillipscollection.org |
Today blogger is going to dip her toes back into the art pool again. Last week we chatted about Chris Burden's architectural sensibility and this week we are going to look at The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, a series of tempera painting depicting the northern migration of African-Americans in the twentieth century. Each panel presents images of African-Americans as "...they abandoned the rural south after World War I for cities like Pittsburgh and Chicago. Lawrence's angular, starkly colorful scenes detail the difficult but momentarily hopeful quest for better opportunities and lives." This came to be known as "The Great Migration" and lasted from 1915 to 1960. The panels reside at Phillips Collection in Washington D.C and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; will be exhibited together in 2016. Caitlin Kearney's article for plinth.co titled "Giving New Voice to Communal History in Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series," is a thoughtful review of the late painter's vivid portrayals of one the great mass migrations in American history.
Jacob Lawrence 1917-2000 punkwasp |
The Migration Series Panel 3 Jacob Lawrence 1940-41 The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. phillipscollection.org |
The Migration Series Panel 11 Jacob Lawrence 1940-41 nytimes.com |
Jacob Lawrence's pictorial interpretation of events, places, and emotions, are threaded through the migration experience and "...provides a shared memory of, and for, a people and culture." The series becomes a voice that retell the collective history of communal life. The narrative strength of the series resembles oral history-a cultural history written in a non-textual format, preserving it and passing it down.
The collection, all sixty panels, is currently housed in New York City and Washington D.C. and their reunion will accompanied by an online initiative that will reunite the series in a more modern format. The Phillips Museum also plans to launch a Jacob Lawrence microsite over the summer, in conjunction with the exhibit. The museum is also planing to include video interviews with Mr. Lawrence, accessible to the public, as well as posting archival biographical information. The public will be able to listen to the painter's own voice, used as a form of oral history, adding dimension to The Migration Series-its creation and the events it presents. The small size of each panel gives each image a palpable scene of first person intimacy, as if Jacob Lawrence is traveling along with the people capturing each moment, even though he was not a participant in "The Great Migration."
The Migration Series Panel 19 Jacob Lawrence 1940-41 The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. phillipscollection.org |
The new microsite will feature all the panel of The Migration Series, in chronological order high-resolution image (not grainy thumbnail images currently on the museum website). By bringing together the full collection online makes sense because it allows the viewer to fully experience this part of American history. Further, the digital presentation allows for newer platforms of dissemination and conservation. The online presentation gives The Migration Series a sense of clarity to otherwise transient works, giving them a sense of permanence, despite the sense of motion in the pictures.
The Migration Series is wonderful collection of intimate painting that tell the history of one of greatest internal migration of people in American history. The story of "The Great Migration" is part of the history of cities across the United States. Jacob Lawrence's panels tell us that story in vivid images that depict joy, sadness, struggle, and success. They bring to life a story of hope for a better life.
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