Scholars and admirers of artists Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence have an opportunity to view works produced by the couple at multiple venues around the country, now and in the coming months. Jacob Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture series is currently on display in Cincinnati, Ohio, while a single work by Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence is being exhibited in Boston, with future stops in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio.
Heroism in Paint: A Master Series by Jacob Lawrence opened at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati in October and will be on display through January 17, 2016. The exhibition showcases Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture series, which is comprised of 41 tempera paintings illustrating the history of Haiti from the arrival of Christopher Columbus to Hispaniola through the dramatic changes brought about by the Haitian Revolution. Lawrence’s masterful storytelling and use of expressive colors make the Toussaint series one of Lawrence’s most well-known and regarded artistic series.
Details on the Taft Museum’s exhibition are available at the museum’s website and via the video below.
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence’s gouache on paper, Bayou, produced in 1941, is currently on display as part of Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957, the first major exhibition to explore the founding and legacy of Black Mountain College, a small, experimental liberal arts college in North Carolina. The exhibition was created and currently on view at The Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston through January 24, 2016. It will then travel to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (February 21–May 15, 2016) and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio (Sept. 17, 2016–Jan. 1, 2017).
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence accompanied her husband, Jacob, to Black Mountain when he served as painting instructor during the college’s summer art institute in 1946. Photographs of the Lawrences and examples of their artwork are included in the ICA-Boston exhibition and the accompanying catalog. You can learn more by viewing the following video or visiting the ICA-Boston website.
To learn more about the fine arts collection at the Amistad Research Center, visit the Fine Arts page on our website or contact the Reference Department at reference@amistadresearchcenter.org or 504.862.3222.
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