Jacob Lawrence was renowned for his bold, graphic paintings that depicted African American historical figures and the daily successes and struggles of the Black Americans he saw around him, specifically those part of the Great Migration from the rural south to Northeastern and Midwestern cities. Lawrence painted his diverse subjects in a pseudo-representational style with bright yet incongruous colors in flat, fragmented forms and space. “My pictures express my life and experience. I paint the things I know about and the things I have experienced,” Lawrence said.
Source: National Gallery of Art
