Peabody-Essex Museum
On view January 18, 2020 to April 26, 2020
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle is the first museum exhibition of the series of paintings Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56) by the best known black American artist of the 20th century, Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000). Created during the modern civil rights era, Lawrence’s thirty intimate panels interpret pivotal moments in the American Revolution and the early decades of the republic between 1775 and 1817 and, as he wrote, “depict the struggles of a people to create a nation and their attempt to build a democracy.”
Reunited for the first time in more than sixty years, the Struggle paintings revive Lawrence's way of reimagining American history as shared history. Utilizing historical fact to underscore universal values, he created a broader narrative of U.S. history by pairing image and text, quoting a range of voices and rendering figures from prominent Founding Fathers to underrepresented historical actors. The paintings of the series, along with works by contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas, resonate with the effortful pursuit of democracy, justice, truth, and inclusion — struggles ongoing around our nation and the world today.
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum.
Reunited for the first time in more than sixty years, the Struggle paintings revive Lawrence's way of reimagining American history as shared history. Utilizing historical fact to underscore universal values, he created a broader narrative of U.S. history by pairing image and text, quoting a range of voices and rendering figures from prominent Founding Fathers to underrepresented historical actors. The paintings of the series, along with works by contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas, resonate with the effortful pursuit of democracy, justice, truth, and inclusion — struggles ongoing around our nation and the world today.
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum.
The Peabody-Essex Museum’s exhibition of Lawrence’s Struggle series, that will have a national tour in 2020-22, remind us that the US nation was created by diverse peoples and underscores the continuing relevance of his art.
Catalogue
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggleforthcoming in November
Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) was one of the most important chroniclers of the American experience, renowned for his method of combining small paintings with narrative text. His seventh narrative cycle, Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–1956), depicted the diverse, mutually linked fortunes of American constituencies and examined decisive moments in the creation and defense of American democracy. The paintings’ captions—direct quotations from historical letters, petitions, military reports, and speeches, authored by named and unnamed individuals—represent signal moments in the American Revolution and the early decades of the American republic, featuring the words and actions of founding fathers, enslaved people, freedmen, women, and Native Americans.
Dispersed more than sixty years ago, Lawrence’s Struggle series visualized a succession of violent encounters and repetitions of unresolved confrontations. This book reunites the series for the first time since 1958, convening a host of contributors to explore Lawrence’s portrayals of a country’s foundational democratic debates and contradictions.
Copublished with: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
- PUBLISHED: November 2019
- SUBJECT LISTING: Art History / African American Art
- BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: 192 Pages, 9 x 11 in, 82 color illus., 27 b&w illus.
- ISBN: 9780295747040