Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle
Member Preview Days
Join us for an exclusive Member Preview of Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 11 AM-6 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 11 AM-6 PM
Advance reservations required for all members. No walk-ins.
Due to safety concerns, there will not be exhibition tours. All Covid safety protocols including temperature readings, mask-wearing, and physical distancing (vaccinated and unvaccinated) must be followed.
Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century will also be open to members during this time.
Jacob Lawrence was one of the greatest narrative artists of the 20th century. His revolutionary, yet little-known, 30-panel series Struggle…From the History of the American People, painted between 1954 and 1956, chronicles an integrated American history that acknowledges the seminal contributions of marginalized voices in the nation’s fight for freedom. The paintings depict defining moments in the American Revolution and the early decades of the republic and feature the words and actions of founding fathers, enslaved people, women, immigrants, and Native Americans. For the first time since 1958, the series is reunited, along with two panels discovered in 2020 and 2021.
Contemporary works by three artists—Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas—further enrich the context for this reunion of Lawrence’s Struggle series.
IMAGE: Jacob Lawrence, Panel 1, …Is Life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? – Patrick Henry, 1775, 1955 Egg tempera on hardboard, 12 x 16 in., Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56 © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York