He
re is another unassuming house with a deep history!
Known as one of the greatest narrative artists of the 20th century, this house was once home to celebrated artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). Desperately poor, Lawrence never finished high school, because he had to drop out to help support his mother, a domestic worker. Yet in his lifetime he earned more than 20 honorary doctoral degrees from some of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
He was born in Massachusetts but moved to Harlem at the age of 13 and developed his craft early on as an artist in the Works Progress Administration. In 1941, at the age of 24, he became famous with his “Migration of the Negro” series, a group of 60 tempera-on-board paintings depicting the movement of African Americans from the South to the North.
The flat, vividly colored paintings packed an emotional charge that depicted a wrenching societal shift in America. They were jointly purchased by the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection and sent on an extensive national tour, and three years later Lawrence had his first solo show at the Museum of Modern Art.
Jacob Lawrence was an impassioned observer and storyteller whose art documented both the African American experience as well as the larger human struggle for freedom and social justice for the rest of his career.
In 1971 he moved to Seattle to join the faculty of the University of Washington, where he worked until retiring from teaching in 1983. Today, Lawrence's artworks are in the permanent collections of over 200 museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the White House Art Collection, and even numerous schools across the state.
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