Next up at the Henry: The life and art of Jacob Lawrence

Builders 1995 is one of the works in the Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery.

When Beth Sellars took on the job of curating an exhibit of Jacob Lawrence’s work for the Henry Gallery, she had a problem—several, in fact. Her subject was a world famous artist with a large body of work and she had only five months to prepare an exhibition. (The usual time frame for such an exhibit is two years, Sellars says.) Moreover, there already had been numerous retrospectives of Lawrence’s art. What could she do that wouldn’t be redundant?

“Then one day it occurred to me that almost everything Lawrence has done in his life, he has done through his art,” Sellars says. “I decided we would do an exhibition that traced his life through his work.”

Fortunately for Sellars, the museums that own Lawrence’s work were willing to “jump through hoops” to get the pieces here in time, and the exhibit Jacob Lawrence: Painting Life—will open Thursday, July 2 at the gallery.

Lawrence is, of course, a professor emeritus in the UW School of Art, but he is well known far beyond this area. Sellars, who is a guest curator for this exhibit, estimates there are 1,500 of the artist’s works in existence, the majority owned by institutions in the East. More than 200 have been brought here for the exhibition—quite a feat, considering that the time for processing the loan of a painting is ordinarily at least six months.

The exhibit begins with 30 paintings from Lawrence’s Migration Series, work that depicts the migration of African Americans from the South to the North in the early part of this century. Although these paintings are not the earliest in the exhibit, they were chosen as the starting point because they depict Lawrence’s roots, Sellars says. His parents were part of that migration, and his mother eventually settled the family in Harlem, where Lawrence grew up.

The Migration Series, done in 1941, also was the work that pushed Lawrence over the top into commercial success at the early age of 24. Two museums fought over the 60 paintings and eventually divvied them up. New York’s Museum of Modern Art is loaning its 30 for the Henry exhibit.

Following the Migration Series are a few paintings done earlier, in the late 30s, which Sellars describes as more two-dimensional than his later work—“almost cartoon-like.” Lawrence began making art when he was still in school, at an arts and crafts program called Utopia House. Later, he was part of the WPA’s Easel Project, where he depicted life around him in the Harlem Series. He also became very interested in the history and culture of African Americans, which he illustrated in the Toussant Series, about the legendary Haitian leader; and the Harriet Tubman Series, about the famous abolitionist. The exhibition will include work from all of these series.

“There’s a lot of text in this exhibition, to explain all the background,” Sellars says. “However, much of it is quotes from Lawrence, because he has been interviewed many times. So it’s like he’s telling the story himself.”

It was in the WPA project that Lawrence met Gwendolyn Knight, also an artist, whom he later married. The couple honeymooned in the South, where Lawrence began work on his series, The Legend of John Brown, the only time he would feature a non-black leader in his work. A print version of this series is included in the exhibition.

“The Lawrences returned to New York when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and Jacob joined the Coast Guard,” Sellars says. “There, he became a ship artist, but most of that work has been lost. We have only a few pieces in the exhibition, including a very unusual portrait.” There are also a few pieces from Lawrence’s war series, done after the fighting was over.

According to Sellars, Lawrence’s time at the Black Mountain residential art program marks a turning point for the artist. The prevailing style at Black Mountain was abstract expressionism, and figurative painting like Lawrence’s was generally frowned upon. Although he was invited to the program and taught there, Lawrence found his confidence was shaken, and shortly after returning to New York, he checked into a mental hospital for nine months.

“Typical of him, he used that time as a source of material,” Sellars says. “We have several of the paintings that he did of life inside the hospital.”

After the hospital, Lawerence’s work became larger and more fragmented, according to Sellars, but he stuck to his figurative style. He did a series of works featuring the theater and games of various types, several of which are included in the exhibit. Also included are scenes Lawrence painted in Nigeria, where he lived for eight months; and scenes of the civil rights movement, which by then was exploding in this country.

“It was at this point that Lawrence began to teach,” Sellars says, “first at Pratt Institute in New York and later during residencies elsewhere. He came to the UW on a residency, then later was offered a tenured position.”

Lawrence accepted the position, but his heart wasn’t quite in Seattle. Sellars tells about one painting in which Lawrence depicts his Seattle studio, but the scene outside the window is from Harlem. It was only after he had been here several years that Mt. Rainier began to make an appearance in his work.

The exhibit has a whole room devoted to work from Lawrence’s Builders Series, which depicts construction workers on the job. There will also be a case in the room containing about 25 items from Lawrence’s large collection of tools. But the artist is no handyman. “He likes the look and feel of the tools,” Sellars says. “In a lot of cases he doesn’t have a clue how to use them.”

The exhibition also includes the Hiroshima Series, done to illustrate John Hersey’s book of the same name, and the Genesis Series, which depicts events from the Bible, as well as a print series done to raise money for cataloging Lawrence’s complete works. The latter includes earlier “drafts” and the artist’s instructions on changes to be made.

In the final room are several self-portraits, with quotes from Lawrence and others, including UW Professor Emeritus and fellow artist Michael Spafford.

Sellars, who has been a curator for 25 years but was not familiar with all of Lawrence’s work before doing the exhibit, says she found it a very rewarding task. “One of the really interesting things was learning how Lawrence’s work was affected by the historical events happening around him,” she says. “For that reason the exhibition includes a timeline of those events.”

And she also believes Lawrence’s career contains a message about government support of the arts. “Lawrence has said many times that if it had not been for the WPA, he would not have become an artist. Looking at 60 years worth of his art, I can only be grateful that that support was there for him and mourn the fact that it doesn’t seem to be there for artists today.”

Jacob Lawrence will be present for an opening reception 6:30­8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 1 at the gallery. Several other events are scheduled in conjunction with the exhibit (see 'Events related to Lawrence exhibit'), which closes Sept. 27. ¶

Nancy Wick