Jacob Lawrence

Frederick Douglass, the slave who became an abolitionist leader, and Harriet Tubman, the slave who led 300 others to freedom, are two of this state's most heroic natives. Born in bondage on the Eastern Shore, they had to escape Maryland in order to embrace their illustrious careers. But they're back now in triumph, in "Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of 1938-40" at the Baltimore Museum of Art.Painter Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1917, but from 1930 lived in Harlem, in the shadow of the Harlem renaissance, and became interested both in art and in African-American history.

In 1941, 23-year-old Harlem-based artist Jacob Lawrence completed a haunting series of paintings depicting the mass migration of African-Americans that occurred between the two world wars when almost 1 million moved from the rural South to the industrial North. Called The Migration Series, the entire work is on display at Washington's Phillips Collection through Oct. 26. The project was hugely ambitious for a young painter. It consists of 60 separate tempera paintings, each of which is captioned to form a corresponding historically accurate narrative.

In 1940, when he was 22 years old, artist Jacob Lawrence began a project that would consume him for a year. Across 60 panels, each 18-by-12 inches, he painted an epic narrative called "The Migration of the Negro."Done in tempera paint and gesso (a mixture of chalk and glue), the paintings depict the exodus of African-Americans from the rural South to cities in the North, from 1916 to 1919.For years, the series of numbered paintings has been split between the Museum of Modern Art in New York (even numbers)

The Yataruba Project sounds as if it might be a dam being built on a remote African river. But no, it's one of the bands that play at the Jazz Soiree of the 11th Black Heritage Art Show tomorrow night at the Baltimore Convention Center. The art show opens at 11 a.m. tomorrow, beginning a Black History Month weekend celebration of African-American culture from painting and printmaking to jazz, dance, spoken word and gospel. Empowerment seminars will be held Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

I cannot remember a time when I didn't know the paintings of Jacob Lawrence. I grew up in Harlem in the 1950s, and Lawrence's epic series "The Migration of the Negro," which he completed in 1941, represented for me more than a historical and demographic event: It was the story of my own family and of practically everyone we knew. Lawrence's paintings were the visual narrative of our own experience, told in a language that, like the poetry of Langston Hughes, we understood instinctively.

It's not often that local galleries present exhibitions of the "Old Masters" of African-American art, so the show of works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Faith Ringgold and others that opened earlier this month at the Thomas Segal Gallery should be considered one of the season's not-to-be-missed events. I use the term "Old Masters" advisedly, of course: The visual arts of African-Americans really only came into their own in the 1920s and '30s as part of the remarkable literary and artistic flowering known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Jacob Lawrence, 82, whose colorful paintings chronicled the history of black America with subtle emotion and evocative simplicity, died of lung cancer yesterday at his home in Seattle. A National Medal of Arts winner in 1990, Mr. Lawrence was loved not only for his work but also for his generosity and kindness to those he met. Lawrence was highly regarded in the prolific art circles of Depression-era Harlem. Influenced by both Matisse and the Cubists, Lawrence was admired for his vibrant imagery as well as his commitment to social causes.

In 1941, 23-year-old Harlem-based artist Jacob Lawrence completed a haunting series of paintings depicting the mass migration of African-Americans that occurred between the two world wars when almost 1 million moved from the rural South to the industrial North. Called The Migration Series, the entire work is on display at Washington's Phillips Collection through Oct. 26. The project was hugely ambitious for a young painter. It consists of 60 separate tempera paintings, each of which is captioned to form a corresponding historically accurate narrative.

Lou Stovall has had a silk-screen printmaking studio in Washington since 1968, and in the intervening 23 years has made prints for about 80 artists, by his own estimate. Last year a group show of works by some of those artists, and Stovall himself, opened at the African-American Atelier in Greensboro, N.C., and then went to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.A smaller version of that show has opened at Dundalk Community College in celebration of Black History Month. Called "Heroes, Teachers and Friends," it contains 24 works by Stovall and 11 colleagues for whom he has made silk-screen prints of their works, including such famous artists as Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett and Sam Gilliam.

LOU STOVALL has had a silk-screen printmaking studio in Washington since 1968, and in the intervening 23 years has made prints for about 80 artists, by his own estimate. Last year a group show of works by some of those artists, and Stovall himself, opened at the African-American Atelier in Greensboro, N.C., and then went to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.A smaller version of that show has opened at Dundalk Community College in celebration of Black History Month. Called "Heroes, Teachers and Friends," it contains 24 works by Stovall and 11 colleagues for whom he has made silk-screen prints of their works, including such famous artists as Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett and Sam Gilliam.

It's not often that local galleries present exhibitions of the "Old Masters" of African-American art, so the show of works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Faith Ringgold and others that opened earlier this month at the Thomas Segal Gallery should be considered one of the season's not-to-be-missed events. I use the term "Old Masters" advisedly, of course: The visual arts of African-Americans really only came into their own in the 1920s and '30s as part of the remarkable literary and artistic flowering known as the Harlem Renaissance.

I cannot remember a time when I didn't know the paintings of Jacob Lawrence. I grew up in Harlem in the 1950s, and Lawrence's epic series "The Migration of the Negro," which he completed in 1941, represented for me more than a historical and demographic event: It was the story of my own family and of practically everyone we knew. Lawrence's paintings were the visual narrative of our own experience, told in a language that, like the poetry of Langston Hughes, we understood instinctively.

After Andy Warhol, it has been said, art could look like anything. For that reason alone, Warhol may go down in history as one of the pivotal artists of the 20th century. He is credited with liberating American art from the last vestiges of European modernist orthodoxy, and his influence on the generation of artists who followed has been enormous. His Pop Art movement of the 1960s was probably of greater significance to later art than was the abstract expressionist movement that preceded it. Moreover, Warhol was the most famous art world personality of his day, a consummate manipulator of the media who cultivated a celebrity image rivaling that of Picasso and Matisse even among people who knew little about art. Not surprisingly, Warhol was also one of the most controversial artists of his age. His detractors called him a lightweight who was disengaged from the important issues of his day. The public was amused by his soup cans and celebrity portraits but also inclined to see him as a fop and a fool, a hypester who shamelessly parlayed the ephemera and kitsch of pop culture into a hugely remunerative scam.

Jacob Lawrence, 82, whose colorful paintings chronicled the history of black America with subtle emotion and evocative simplicity, died of lung cancer yesterday at his home in Seattle. A National Medal of Arts winner in 1990, Mr. Lawrence was loved not only for his work but also for his generosity and kindness to those he met. Lawrence was highly regarded in the prolific art circles of Depression-era Harlem. Influenced by both Matisse and the Cubists, Lawrence was admired for his vibrant imagery as well as his commitment to social causes.

In 1940, when he was 22 years old, artist Jacob Lawrence began a project that would consume him for a year. Across 60 panels, each 18-by-12 inches, he painted an epic narrative called "The Migration of the Negro."Done in tempera paint and gesso (a mixture of chalk and glue), the paintings depict the exodus of African-Americans from the rural South to cities in the North, from 1916 to 1919.For years, the series of numbered paintings has been split between the Museum of Modern Art in New York (even numbers)

For more than half a century the work of sculptor Elizabeth Catlett has proclaimed the dignity of humankind. An African-American, she has championed the history of her people, but in its universality her work transcends even the noblest of causes.Through the mid-century ascendancy of abstract art her work remained decidedly figurative without becoming dated, partly because her forms, though recognizable, are to some degree abstracted, in the way they look and in what they express.When we look at them, we are seeing more an idea than a depiction.

Minority artists and educators say the impetus for museums to collect African-American material in any depth is a recent development, and while the change is praiseworthy, they caution that the effort still has a long way to go.Though museums previously might have acquired works by well-known black artists such as Jacob Lawrence or Romare Bearden, "until recently there was no aggressive collecting," said Leslie King-Hammond, dean of graduate studies at...

For more than half a century the work of sculptor Elizabeth Catlett has proclaimed the dignity of humankind. An African-American, she has championed the history of her people, but in its universality her work transcends even the noblest of causes.Through the mid-century ascendancy of abstract art her work remained decidedly figurative without becoming dated, partly because her forms, though recognizable, are to some degree abstracted, in the way they look and in what they express.When we look at them, we are seeing more an idea than a depiction.

Baltimore's museums are, in some cases have long been, making sincere efforts to address the African-American bTC community through a broad spectrum of activities. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are doing all they could or should.In the area of collecting, the Baltimore Museum of Art both collects African art and has been collecting African-American art for half a century, until it now has works by many artists from Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden and James Van Der Zee to Martin Puryear, Roland Freeman, Tom Miller and Joyce J. Scott.

Lou Stovall has had a silk-screen printmaking studio in Washington since 1968, and in the intervening 23 years has made prints for about 80 artists, by his own estimate. Last year a group show of works by some of those artists, and Stovall himself, opened at the African-American Atelier in Greensboro, N.C., and then went to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.A smaller version of that show has opened at Dundalk Community College in celebration of Black History Month. Called "Heroes, Teachers and Friends," it contains 24 works by Stovall and 11 colleagues for whom he has made silk-screen prints of their works, including such famous artists as Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett and Sam Gilliam.