Jacob Lawrence, We crossed the River at McKonkey’s Ferry 9 miles above Trenton . . . the night was excessively severe . . . which the men bore without the least murmur . . . —Tench Tilghman, 27 December 1776. Egg tempera on hardboard.
The painter Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) took a particular interest in the story of America.
Washington crossing the Delaware?
Or the soldiers in the boat behind him, who fought the battle?
History follows many possible paths. It may indeed be told by the winners, as others have said. But even determining who the “winners” were can be a challenge.
Lawrence’s series of documentary paintings—his title was “Struggle: From the History of the American People”—tells in its modest, scholarly way a story of the woman who followed her husband into battle, of immigrants carrying all their belongings on their back, of Native Americans meeting the whites who would destroy their home, of those freezing soldiers sitting behind George Washington.
The series—about thirty small egg-tempura on board paintings—was created in the 1950s. Lawrence focused on the first fifty years of the new republic, from the Revolution through the War of 1812, researching his topic in a Harlem branch of the New York Public Library. The paintings subsequently scattered, but are now being shown together for the first time since the 1950s at the Peabody Essex Museum, through April 26.
Lawrence painted history from his black American experience. Another collection—the 60-panel “Migration Series,” which investigated the movement of blacks from the South to the North, a WPA project—was an early success. He had a solo show at MoMA in the 1940s, and spent time teaching at Black Mountain College, where the work of Josef Albers was influential. Lawrence also painted series examining the lives of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown. A lifelong teacher, almost all his work has a scholarly approach.
In truth, Lawrence didn’t conceive “Struggle” as being about winners and losers. His was a pluralistic America, a broader view of diverse peoples with diverse ideas co-existing through challenges and successes. Lawrence wasn’t out to re-tell the story, or necessarily right the misdirection of accepted historical narratives. He simply meant to include everyone.
The paintings are small but quite striking. Lawrence worked in a style he called “dynamic cubism,” although the results seem far less European than that sounds. Creating his own method that worked the edge between representational and abstract, Lawrence painted with angular, sharp lines. He formed dramatic contrasts in such small space, delineating personalities easily.
Clothing and color take on symbolic meaning. Sacajawea, meeting the travel-worn Lewis and Clark, speaks silent volumes with her red garment.
Irony abounds as well: displayed with a quote from the Constitution’s preamble, “In order to form a more perfect union,” Lawrence painted the exhausted framers as less-than-perfect, collapsed in a heap at the negotiating table.
Jacob Lawrence, We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility. Egg tempera on hardboard.
Lawrence presented all these paintings with his own captions, usually citations from well-known narratives. The exhibition includes those captions, and extensive additional labeling as well. It does take time to work through “The American Struggle,” in order to relate to Lawrence’s emotional and intellectual sense of history.
But the wordy labeling never seems preachy or didactic. A large touchscreen in the center of the gallery, with thumbnails of all the drawings and the captions, eases the burden of examining small print on the walls. In addition, the work of three contemporary artists—a video from Derrick Adams, a fascinating musical installation by Bethany Collins, and multiple-exposure photographs from Hank Willis Thomas, tucked away in corners of the large room—offer alternative insights.
“Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle” runs through April 26, 2020 at the Peabody Essex Museum. For more information visit pem.org or call 978-745-9500.