The Migration Series
The Migration Series
In the late 1930s, the American artist Jacob Lawrence began producing extended narratives composed of multiple small paintings that were based on history or biography. By far the most famous of these is The Migration Series (1941), a sequence of 60 paintings depicting the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between World War I and World War II—a development that had previously received little or no widespread attention.
Before he began painting, Lawrence spent months researching the subject and distilling it into short captions and preparatory drawings. Then, with the help of his wife, the artist Gwendolyn Knight, he prepared 60 boards for the paintings. He created the paintings in tempera, a type of water-base paint that dries rapidly. To keep the colors consistent, he applied one hue at a time to every painting where it was to appear, a feat of organization that required him to plan all 60 paintings in detail.
Published in part in Fortune magazine, the series was the subject of a solo show at the Downtown Gallery in Manhattan in 1941, making Lawrence the first black artist represented by a New York gallery. Interest in the series was intense. Ultimately, The Phillips Collection and New York's Museum of Modern Art agreed to divide it, with the Phillips buying the odd-numbered paintings.
To learn more about Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series, explore two Phillips interactive programs: Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line and Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series.
Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, Panel no. 3: From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north, 1940-1941. © 2008 Estate of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, Panel no. 9: They left because the boll weevil had ravaged the cotton crop, 1940-1941. © 2008 Estate of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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