Jacob Lawrence grew up in Harlem during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, studying art at community workshops led by sculptor Augusta Savage, who recognised his talent early and helped secure him a place on a federal arts programme that supported him financially while he developed his craft.
In 1941, at just 23 years old, Lawrence completed the Migration Series, a sequence of 60 small tempera panels chronicling the mass movement of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities in the early twentieth century. The series was exhibited at New York's Downtown Gallery, making Lawrence the first African American artist represented by a major New York gallery, and was later split between the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection.
Lawrence went on to a decades-long career defined by bold, geometric compositions depicting African American history and everyday life, including series on Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and the Civil War. He taught for many years at the University of Washington and remains one of the most celebrated American artists of the twentieth century.
- Creator of the Migration Series, one of the most significant works in American art history
- First African American artist represented by a major New York gallery
- Recipient of the National Medal of Arts, 1990
- Longtime professor of art at the University of Washington
- Work held in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the Phillips Collection
- Tell the story of your community.. Lawrence chose to make Black history and everyday life the central subject of his art.
- Youth is not a barrier to major work.. He completed his most celebrated work at just 23 years old.
- Mentorship shapes careers.. His early training under Augusta Savage was foundational to his development.
- Teach as you rise.. He spent decades as a professor, extending his influence to new generations of artists.