Jacob Lawrence, the premier black painter of his age.
Brotherhood
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917, Jacob Lawrence emerged as one of America's leading figurative artists and the first to document the history of African Americans through widely-viewed and influential artworks.
Lawrence and his family moved to Harlem in 1924, where he experienced the vibrancy of black intellectual, cultural, and artistic life in what was seen as the Harlem Renaissance. He became well known at the young age of 21 for his "Toussant L'Ouverture Series" (1937), a 41-painting collection that depicts the successful Haitian slave rebellion.
At the age of 24, he became the first African American whose work was included in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art.
In 1970, Lawrence and his wife, painter Gwendolyn Knight, moved to Seattle when Lawrence accepted an appointment as Professor in the School of Art at the University of Washington. He retired in 1980 and continued to serve as Emeritus Professor until his death in 2000 at the age of 83.
