Jacob Lawrence: Historian

ISSN： 1470-1154

Source： Rethinking History, Vol.10, Iss.2, 2006-06, pp. : 291-295

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Abstract

The artist Jacob Lawrence established his reputation as a painter of historical subjects, focusing particularly on African-American history. While historians have often used his paintings as illustrations of the black experience, they have not adequately confronted the historiographic and methodological challenges posed by Lawrence's work. This is particularly true of Lawrence's best known series, ‘The Migration of the Negro' (1941). In preparation for this project, Lawrence studied primary and secondary accounts of early twentieth-century African-American migration, and interacted with the emerging Negro History movement that centered on Harlem's Schomburg Collection. The resulting work is not only a visual account of the migration but an intervention into its historiography, challenging early interpretations that celebrated the migration uncritically. Furthermore, Lawrence's work suggests that historians trained in the use of written texts have not fully examined the ways that visual artists participate in the creation of historical knowledge through the interpretations put forward in their works.