Jacob Lawrence

I think it happened towards the beginning, Tope.

As I've told a number of my friends and colleagues, the, the genesis really started in the, the mid-20 teens when the Museum of Modern Art did this incredible exhibit on Jacob Lawrence, um, the Great Migration.

And I was in New York City, and I was talking to a friend, and they were saying to me, "You gotta see this show at MoMA, it's fantastic, but this is not a MoMA exhibition."

Hmm.

Things have changed though, I have to say, that with Anne Temkin, um, a- as the chief curator, that institution has changed dramatically.

But before that moment, or at that moment, 2015, it was still kind of an anomaly for MoMA to do that.

My-- the upshot though is that I said, "Well, what if, what if I start to think about Jacob Lawrence's work in this more poetic way that moves away from s- this migration experience, that moves away from Toussaint Louverture, that moves away from, uh, Harriet Tubman, and instead deals with color, and deals with, with the patterns, and deals with the rhythms?" And, [laughs] and the color that kept on talking to me and demanding that I write about it, or demanding that it speak, [laughs] really, was i- was viridian.

Oh.

Powell is the author of Color Struck: Painting, Pigment, Affect, which was just published by Princeton University Press.

The book examines the historical and cultural work color does in the work of 20th and 21st century artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, Nina Chanel Abney, and plenty of others you'll hear us discuss in a moment.

The book builds from Powell's 2022 National Gallery of Art Mellon Lectures of the same title.

Bookshop and Amazon offer Color Struck from $46 to $61.

I'm pointing out in some ways how for all the importance of this text, there's something missing, and that the, that missing element is, you know, thinking about, uh, race and color as, as, as a part of the equation.

Let's get into some of the colors and artists on whom you especially focus.

My favorite chapter is the chapter on Jacob Lawrence and his use of viridian.

What is viridian? That is, how would you describe it, and what are its, its origins?

About six thousand people sought a new existence during this time, moving away from the social pressures of the South into an uncertain but different future in the North and Midwest.

The challenges of adapting to these new cities became a central theme for many artists, including Jacob Lawrence, whose Migration Series of paintings was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in neunzehnhunderteinundvierzig.

His work gained significant attention and established him as an important figure in the art world.

Music was also deeply affected by this demographic shift.

This is Carrie Ann.

Today we have an awesome book called An Artist Like Me, Jacob Lawrence, written and illustrated by Celia Fernal.

This is a true story about a wonderful artist.

This is such a wonderful book and I hope that you will enjoy it.

Let's get started.

An Artist Like Me, Jacob Lawrence, written by Celia Vernal.

Do you like bright colors, shapes, telling stories? If you do, then you're going to like Jacob Lawrence's And he'd like you, too.

Jacob Armstead Lawrence was born in Atlantic City in New Jersey, USA, on September 17, 1917.