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Exhibition:
The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence
With Elizabeth Hutton Turner
Senior Curator, The Phillips Collection
Thursday, May 31, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT
A major retrospective of works by Jacob Lawrence opened at The Phillips Collection over the weekend. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence" brings together over 200 works spanning Lawrence's long career.
Senior curator at The Phillips Collection, Dr. Elizabeth Hutton Turner (Ph.D., University of Virginia), will be online Thursday, May 31, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss the works of the first African American artist to cross the color barrier and be represented by a major New York gallery. Hutton is author of one of the essays in the Jacob Lawrence Catalog Raisonne and is a specialist in early 20th century art.
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Elizabeth Hutton Turner
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Below is a transcript.
Lawrence's portrayals of family, his home and the streets of his community embrace universal themes such as the quest for freedom, justice and human dignity.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
washingtonpost.com:
Good afternoon everyone. This is Maura McCarthy, museums and galleries producer for washingtonpost.com. I am delighted to be here with Beth Turner, curator of the fabulous new Jacob Lawrence retrospective at the Phillips Collection. Dr. Turner is ready to answer any and all questions you might have about the artist and the exhibition.
Washington, DC:
Of course, Jacob Lawrence is an important painter and it is wonderful that you are doing this retrospective of his work! Thank you!
My question is this: was there anything (a book, a conversation) that served as an impetus for you to put together this exhibit? And was it difficult to secure so many pieces of his work?
Thanks!
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Thanks for the question Washington, DC. The impetus for this project was the completion of the Jacob Lawrence catalogue raisonnee. The first volume is a complete documentation of all of his paintings. The second volume is an analysis of that work with new and groundbreaking essays on Lawrence's contributions to American art history. I contributed an essay in that volume on Lawrence's education in the workshops of Harlem. Our desire to put this exhibition together was met with a great deal of enthusiasm. We had over 80 lenders, 40 of those were individuals, a tremendous outpouring for an exhibition. I think this generoisty was reflective of the spirit of Jacob Lawrence.
Miami, Florida:
Hi Dr. Turner,
I'm interested in how Lawrence became an artist while growing up in New York. Did he have any mentors or receive any type of formal training?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Hello Miami. Lawrence was first introduced to paints when he was 13 years old in an after school program at Utopia Children's House in Harlem. He was trained by Charles Alston in this community workshop where he was exposed to all sorts of media - clay, construction materials and paint. Lawrence loved the interaction of color. Alston's method of teaching was to follow his students' lead and he began to give Lawrence exercises in compositions. As a design template, Lawrence used patterns in rugs. This was a radical method of education that did not distinguish fine art from decoration. It looked across cultures, both East and West, from painters of the early Renaissance to African Art. Art in the museums was also important to Lawrence in growing up in Harlem along with the art at home in his mother's quilts. This method of teaching highly encouraged self expression and valued invention. When Charles Alston set up Studio 306 in 1934, Lawrence went with him. Studio 306 was an organized method of workshop training in which artists from a variety of disciplines - painters, actors, writers - gathered with their proteges and discussed their craft. From this Lawrence was able to transpose ideas from many different disciplines into his language of pattern and paint.
Downer's Grove, IL:
Dr. Turner,
Did Lawrence find any particular artist(s) inspiring? Were any influential in his work?
It seemed that his later work was slightly different from his early pieces. I was curious if his influences changed or just his own personal style.
Thanks!
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: I think Lawrence was tremendously inspired by the Mexican muralists, particularly Jose Clemente Orozco, who called for a new kind of painting, one that could embrace the scope, vision and design in the creation of a modern city. Also, one that would give voice to all of the people that lived in that city, including everyday working class people.
Brookland:
What attracted Duncan Phillips to Lawrence's Migration series? Was it the subject matter, or something else that related to his other collections?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Thanks for the question, Brookland. I think what attracted Duncan Phillips to Jacob Lawrence was his originality. Phillips like all of the American literati was looking for an American original, a visionary, and Lawrence epitomized that. It was important how Lawrence united this very abstract language of pattern to the epic story of African American migration. The artist's way of seeing and his message were one.
Washington, D.C.:
What did Jacob Lawrence read?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: That's a great question. How many works of modern art began in a library. He researched the Migration series in the Schomburg library in Harlem on 135th Street and wrote the text before he painted the panels. He researched from the Schomburg Collection of Negro History and Prints, specifically drawing from Carter G. Woodson's history of the Migration. As far as favorite poets go, Lawrence's was Claude McKay. He kept McKay's "Home to Harlem" with him until he died.
DC:
I love Blind Beggars. It is a technical and, for me, an emotional masterwork.
Is there one particular painting that moves you the most among all of Lawrence's work? If so, please share.
Thanks again!
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: I have so many favorites. One is his portrait of Harriet Tubman from 1967 because of its great blend of exaggeration and abstraction. Lawrence fearlessly portrays what he knows about his favorite heroine and makes her largest attribute her feet. Not a glorious portrait of a woman, but here is someone who walked herself to freedom and walked so many with her on the Underground Railroad. The testimony of Harriet Tubman resides in her footprints which press forward in the picture plane. They are nested in two overlapping shapes of violet and red. If you look closer you will find her head and hands in the background and she is asleep holding a gun across her body. And where are we but somewhere in the rushes gazing up at her and there she is larger than life.
Washington, D.C.:
Which artists did Lawrence admire and why?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Lawrence was also a great admirer of African Art, finding that it represented strength without brutality.
Chicago, IL:
What do you think made Jacob Lawrence able to break the "color barrier" in the art world? Was it something about his technique or subject matter, or that the art world was ready for it at the time he produced great work?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Thanks for the question, Chicago. I think the answere to your question is the latter. Lawrence was right for his time, just as he is right for our time now. Fame and success never distracted him from his mission. It is important to remember that when his Migration series was on display at the Downtown Gallery, Lawrence was not even in New York, but in New Orleans busy painting his next series of works. He often said that he never painted with the Modern Museum in mind. He was always focused on people and their stories.
Bethesda, MD:
How did it affect Lawrence to have achieved so much in his career at the age of 24?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: I think success gave Lawrence the time, space and opportunity to fully explore his artistic gifts and for that he was always grateful. The proof of that is in the incredible color and complexity that comes into his paintings after he achieved such recognition.
Atlanta, GA:
Have any other artists created works in such long series as Lawrence? That seems very unusual.
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: The idea of painting a 60 panel series is breathtaking. For an artist to have designed it as a story, a collective biography of a generation, is equally astounding. It is important to remember he painted this 60 panel series of the migration all at once, color by color, so it would have unity. Perhaps, that kind of scope has only been matched in epic poetry, not painting.
Reston, Virginia:
I have a print by Mr. Lawrence that was painted in 1965. How can I find out the name of it and what the painting means?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Jacob Lawrence's primary dealers are Francine Sedars in Seattle and D.C. Moore in New York. They can certainly refer you to his complete catalougue listings of paintings and works on paper.
Chicago, IL:
Can you discuss the significance of the materials Jacob Lawrence used in his work (not using traditional canvas, etc.)?
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: This is a very important question because Lawrence connected his meaning and his method so closely. He painted all his life with tempera paint, the paint first given to him in the workshops. He never forgot falling in love with the river of color pouring from those jars of poster paint. HE used his passion for color to create something all his own.. It was his conviction that both his means and method should come from within Harlem if he was going to tell the story of that community. He particularly liked the way tempera paint rested upon the surface of gessoed hardboard panel. He had no desire to experiment with oil on canvas, but preferred the immediate effect of tempera, which dried so rapidly. While some artists who work in oil paint are content to wait for the paint to dry and then come back to work out their ideas, Lawrence, himself, had his idea set before he began and wanted the effect to strike right away in the paint
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: Thank you everyone for your questions. It has been a great pleasure to participate in this inquiry. I hope that the discussion has made everyone curious to know more and see more about this great artist. Please come to the Phillips where you will be most welcome.
Elizabeth Hutton Turner: If you have further questions, please contact me at the Phillips at bturner@phillipscollection.org.
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