Jacob Lawrence Tombstone

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Jacob Lawrence was an artist known for his modernist depictions of African American life painted with vivid colors contrasted with browns and blacks in a style he called “dynamic cubism.”

One well known painting by Jacob Lawrence is called Tombstone. It was painted in 1942 as a part of his Harlem Narratives. These paintings highlighted the role of women, trades people, factory workers and business people in Harlem. They depicted typical life in Harlem including street scenes, workers in factories and families. His affection for and excitement about Harlem are apparent in his artwork. Like many of his paintings this one depicts an everyday scene in Harlem. This scene shows men, women, and children relaxing around a stoop on a hot day. It is painted in Lawrence’s typical style with vivid colors juxtaposed against browns and blacks. Lawrence’s style is also shown here with the simplified human figures amid abstract forms in bold colors. The diagonal lines draw attention to the door and windows at the top of the painting. The forms in the painting appear flat, angular and two dimensional with the exception of the tombstones drawing more attention to them. The painting contains religious and symbolic references to the cycle of life. There is a woman holding a baby reminiscent of a Madonna and child as well as the tombstones depicting death. The plants in …show more content…

His artwork tells personal stories about the era in which he lived. He moved to Harlem as an impressionable teenager with his mother and siblings during the cultural explosion of the Harlem Renaissance and what he saw left a profound impression on him. He said “I think I was so impressed when we moved to New York. My family moved to New York when I was about 13, that was in 1930, and I was so overwhelmed by the tall buildings, the fire escapes, that has stuck with me all these years. So I use it as a theme in many of my works. (Lawrence, L & S Video Inc.,

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