Acclaimed historical paintings by Jacob Lawrence on display at BMA

The late Jacob Lawrence was recently called “one of the most celebrated painters of the 20th century” by Art News.

Lawrence, who died in 2000 at the age of 83, was famed for his colorful, figurative paintings that depicted the experiences of African Americans, daily life in Harlem and events from U.S. history.

He has received renewed attention recently due to a major touring exhibition, “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle.”

The exhibition features the narrative paintings in the artist’s “Struggle: From the History of the American People” series, which highlights the contributions of women and people of color.

The show is on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) through Feb. 7.

Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, “The American Struggle” comes to Birmingham from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

“Jacob Lawrence has a long history with the Birmingham Museum of Art,” said Graham C. Boettcher, BMA director, in a news release.

The BMA hosted Lawrence’s retrospective in 1974 and his “Migration Series” in 1994 and is one of five venues nationally to host “The American Struggle,” Boettcher said.

“Twenty-six years after Lawrence’s last exhibition at the BMA, it’s time to share his powerful work with the next generation,” he said.

One of the great narrative painters of his lifetime, Lawrence originally conceived “Struggle” as a series of 60 paintings, spanning subjects from the American Revolution to World War I.

Lawrence said the series, created between 1954-56, was meant to depict “the struggles of a people to create a nation and their attempt to build a democracy.”

In the end, Lawrence finished 30 panels measuring 12 x 16 inches representing historical moments from 1775 through 1817. Most panels are accompanied by quotations from historical texts.

The paintings include enslaved people, women and Native Americans and address the entwined fortunes of all Americans.

“Lawrence revises the myths of American history,” said Katelyn D. Crawford, BMA curator of American art, in the release.

The artist makes “visible a history which was often erased by white writers,” she said.

Lawrence uses “vibrant colors and fragmented forms that compress space and bring his viewer into these vital, violent moments in the early history of the United States,” Crawford said.

The Birmingham Museum of Art is located at 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd.

For more about the show, call 205-254-2565 or go to artsbma.org.