MAN ON SCAFFOLD, 1985

Lawrence relates the recurrence of ladders and scaffolding in his paintings and prints to the fire escapes that decorated the urban environment of his early years:

"When my family arrived in New York in 1930 the thing that I was very impressed with were the fire escapes of the tenements, which you saw a lot of in New York. You don't see a lot of them these days because you don't have tenements like that here (in Seattle). In the new housing they put the fire escapes on the inside. I think I was so impressed by this that this form appears throughout my work, as part of building the composition. I don't even think about it, it's just part of it.”

—Jacob Lawrence