AFROCENTRIC ART
Jacob Lawrence, 1991 Photo credit: Robert Sorbo/AP/Shutterstock.com
Jacob Lawrence Bright and Shing Son of the Harlem Renaisc
By Rick Bowers
Bold, jagged, triangular shapes. Mostly flat, unmixed primary or secondary colors. An abstract painting? Wait! Are those faces of people? Is that a gun or sword? Is that dripping blood? A quick look at a Jacob Lawrence painting will probably stop your eye. At first, it might appear to be an abstract painting of only shapes, but then, you may realize that something more is going on. Human interactions, news reporting, history? Lawrence’s version of the human story—either as reporting of current events or reevaluating historical happenings—might be called semi-abstract, semi-narrative, semi-expressionistic or semi-something else. His work is unique—not quite this traditional art category or another one. According to LeRonn P. Brooks, associate curator for modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, Lawrence understood his figures “as pure form, but he also puts enough characterization on them that you see them as people. … Lawrence actually made figures that were in both worlds [abstract and narrative]. … I think it communicated his modernity to people who cared about aesthetics, and it also communicated his importance of community to people who cared about the narrative.” 76
BAVUAL:
The African Heritage Magazine
| Spring 2022
