Art is at the Core : Jacob Lawrence
American painter Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) believed that individuals “cannot tell a story in a single painting.” His work, typically painted in series, revolved around African American narratives. Lawrence’s series are natural pairings with numerous concepts across the curriculum.
Visual Thinking: Series of Work
Students can mine a series of artwork for numerous curriculum connections. For example, students responding to Katsushika Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mt. Fuji can discuss apparent weather conditions and seasons (science) clearly featured in the series. Claude Monet’s Haystack series can initiate a discussion on telling time of day (math) and light source position based on shadows (science). Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms series offers a direct connection to United States history and citizenship (social studies).
Series and Sequence
Sequence of events is an important concept across disciplines. In language arts, we call it beginning/middle/end. In social studies, timelines. In math, sequence could be the steps of a problem or the order of operations. Sequence is also important to science cycles and the procedural steps of the scientific method. Jacob Lawrence’s series of work lends itself nicely to integration with sequence of events.
Lawrence’s 60-panel Migration Series chronicled the African American migration North after WWI in search of a better life. The series acts as a timeline, with a beginning, middle, and end. Lawrence’s painting style is also heavily reliant on sequence of events. He invented the Dynamic Cubism style, where the darkest color paint was applied across all panels first, then put away. He worked his way through a color sequence on all sixty panels, moving from darkest colors to lightest colors. He also wrote short captions for every panel, detailing each event.
Creating a Dynamic Cubism Series
After introducing the Migration Series, discuss various images from it, and model Lawrence’s Dynamic Cubism style. Group students and prompt each group to identify three to five important moments in a story or event (can be adapted for any subject/discipline). It is important that each group is comprised of an equal number of students and images. For example, four moments or images = group of four. Students will collaborate to brainstorm the contents of each panel (paper). Afterward, prompt each student to sketch one event on their own panel which will, when put with other group member’s work, comprise the group’s series.
When the sketches are complete, groups will identify which colors are needed across all panels. Depending on budget, students can use tempera paint, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, or crayons for their panel creation. Groups could all work with the same materials or each group could select a different medium best suited to their story or event. After choosing colors they would like to contribute to panels, students with the darkest colors would apply their medium first across all panels, followed by lighter colors in true Dynamic Cubism style.
Peer Synthesis and Evaluation
Each group should move the completed panels out of sequential order. During a peer gallery walk, students should have access to post-its and pens. Groups will use peer-created panels as a visual text and attempt to appropriately sequence other groups’ series. Peers can also create a post-it caption for each panel, just as Jacob Lawrence did with the panels in his Migration Series. Other critical thinking discussion prompts include the order of colors painted, compare/contrast multiple series depicting the same event, and how the choice of medium suits the event or story portrayed.
Integrating this visual arts activity at the end of a unit on sequence, although tempting, is misplaced. If students were asked to write sequenced narratives after responding to visual art, creating in Lawrence’s style, and evaluating peer work, imagine how much richer those narratives would be!
Extending the Learning
Jacob Lawrence’s War Series: This 14-panel series chronicles military members’ experience in WWII
Jacob Lawrence’s Struggle Series: American history comes to life in this 30-panel series
Jacob Lawrence’s Life of Harriet Tubman Series: The 31-panel series serves as the illustrations for the children’s book “Harriet Tubman and the Promised Land,” authored by Jacob Lawrence
“Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, A Young Artist in Harlem,” a 2015 children’s book by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
“Jacob Lawrence in the City,” a 2009 children’s book by Susan Goldman Rubin
Diverse Visual Artist List by Amanda Koonlaba, Ed.S.
Very special thank you to our guest author:
Jamie Hipp, Ph.D. is the founder of Arts Are Hipp Creative Professional Development (www.artsarehipp.com), and an Adjunct Professor of Arts Integration at Louisiana State University. Twitter: @artsarehipp