Jacob Lawrence

Sep 7

Prints and Works on Paper

September 7 - 30, 2023

Opening Reception: “First Thursday,” September 7, 6-8pm

Among the 20th century’s most important artists, Jacob Lawrence documented the African-American experience and the life of the working man. The drawing and many of the prints in this exhibition are from the artist’s Builders series, depicting daily life of blue-collar workers.

In some works, like BUILDERS NO. 14, the workers gather around a workbench fitting together wood joints and handing each other the necessary tools. The print CARPENTERS shows men spread throughout a room, drilling holes and sawing planks of wood.

BUILDERS NO. 14, 1985

BUILDERS THREE, 1991

"It's a beautiful instrument, the tool, especially the hand-tool. We pick it up and it's so perfect, it's so ideal, it's so utilitarian, so aesthetic, that we turn it, we look at it. If it has been around quite some time, it takes on a certain patina, which is really very beautiful. And it's like an extension of the hand. I always think of the tool as an extension of the hand.”
– Jacob Lawrence

Other works include FOREST CREATURES, an etching and drypoint print depicting Harriet Tubman leading fugitive slaves to safety using celestial navigation and the position of the North Star. Tubman was born a slave in Maryland, and escaped to freedom in 1849. For the next 10 years, she returned to the South nineteen times, guiding slaves to freedom in the North through the Underground Railroad.

The exhibition also has prints from Lawrence’s suite “The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture,” depicting scenes from the life of the 18th century Haitian general. Born a slave, Toussaint L’Ouverture rose to lead a slave rebellion and revolution. He coordinated the effort to draw up the first democratic constitution of Haiti. In 1802, before the Haitian Republic was firmly established, he was arrested by Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops, sent to Paris, and imprisoned. He died one year later. One year after his death, Haiti became the first Black Western republic.