Jacob Lawrence : The American Struggle

Interesting recorded online discussion from the Metropolitan Museum about Jacob Lawrence’s series of paintings “Struggle” currently on show at the Museum.

Lawrence was covered in a recent course I’d done on 20th century American art and I had been intrigued by him so was delighted to see this discussion advertised on recent emails from The Met 

Kevin Young, Director of the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, LeRohn P. Brooks, Associate Curator for Modern and Contemporary Collections at the  Getty Research Institute LA and Tommi Lawson, Curator of Art and Artefact also as the Schomburg discussed the importance of the Centre, then the 135th Street library, to Lawrence’s education. They talked about how the library was a pioneer of adult education and how he was helped by a mentorship programme. They talked about the informal groups of artists and writers which grew up around the library.

They then went on to look at the series of pictures themselves which tell the story of American democracy but in the context of the Civil Rights Movement and the McCarthy Years as they were painted from 1954-56. They looked at why he chose to paint narrative works rather work within the abstract expressionist field which was fashionable at the time.