Jacob Lawrence, 1917-2000, is an American artists known for his colorful and emotional artwork depicting various struggles of African-Americans, including civil rights confrontations and the fight for unity and equality.
The Loveland Museum, 503 N. Lincoln Ave., is featuring an exhibit showcasing numbered and signed prints from three series created by Lawrence — the Hiroshima, the Genesis and the Toussaint L’Ouverture.
“Jacob Lawrence did prints as part of his practice. Of course he paints, but also prints were big part of what he did,” Curator of Art Maureen Corey explained. “Often with artists that do prints, there are things they can achieve in the print media that they cannot exactly achieve in painting.”
The prints are part of a collection owned by Alitash Kebede from Los Angeles. Kebede was a close personal friend of Lawrence.
The difference between a print and a painting is that a print is flat and usually has a dot matrix pattern, unlike paintings that have textured brush strokes, according to Carmen Guedez Modern Art. There are different types of print processes such as giclee prints, serigraph prints and lithograph prints.
While paintings have uneven and irregular edges, a print typically has sharp, even and clean edges. Prints also have an identification number for the series and a copyright logo printed in small letters.
“These were originally created as prints, or print originals,” Corey said. “They are often done in a series and so after that series is done, there are no more that are done. They are not as one-off as paintings but they are developed specifically in the print medium.”
Lawrence’s Hiroshima series was created when he was invited by the Limited Editions Club of New York to illustrate a book of his choosing. Lawrence chose the book, “Hiroshima” by John Hersey.
According to Lawrence, he selected this specific book because of “its power, insight, scope, and sensitivity as well as for its overall content.”
The artist wanted to illustrate a series of events that took place when the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945.
The series contains eight works that feature scenes such as a park, farmers, a family and a playground. However, the prints are not of any one specific person, country or city.
In the Genesis series, Lawrence pulls inspiration from his attendance of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.
The series, created in 1989, contains eight works based on biblical texts as well as Lawrence’s memories of Sunday sermons.
“He’s done some beautiful work on the text on these which is really nice to see and unique,” Corey commented. “Again, you see highly expressive forms which you tend to see in Lawrence’s work.”
The main focal point of each print is a preacher engaged in a passionate pose with his congregation seated in the middle ground and arched windows in the background. The emotion seen in the prints, from the preacher and his followers, is as vibrant as the colors the artist uses. Viewers can almost hear the preacher’s passionate words in each piece.
The third series in the exhibit, the Toussaint L’Ouverture, focuses on 41 pointing from a series of the same name and completed in 1938.
Toussaint L’Ouverture was a leader in the Haitian revolution and was a force behind the effort to draw up Haiti’s first democratic constitution. However, before the constitution was created, L’Ouverture was captured by Napoleon Bonaparte and sent to Paris where he died in prison.
Lawrence recreated many of the paintings as he translated the scenes onto silkscreen and he included captions for each print.
As with his Hiroshima and Genesis series, the prints in the Toussaint L’Ouverture are colorful and full of raw and evocative emotions and subjects.
“His subject matter itself is what moves his work forward and keeps it going. People rediscover it for various reasons,” Corey said. “And that is one of the reasons why the work we have here is so interesting. People can understand it on many different levels. You don’t have to approach it on one kind of understanding.”
Along with Lawrence’s prints, two art pieces by Sauda Mitchell sit in the Main Gallery.
“I came across her because she talks about her specific connection to Jacob Lawrence and how she looks to him for her inspiration,” Corey said.
Mitchell hails from Savannah, GA and creates prints, painting and artistic books that illustrate her passion for researching archival collection materials.
Mitchell’s art centers around her studies and research of the Black experience and the artist includes QR codes on her artworks so viewers can further explore the materials the artist pulls her inspirations from.
Her work “exists as a catalyst for discussion, reflection, and a celebration of the human spirit,” the Loveland Museum wrote in its brochure about the exhibit.
“She is a great contemporary component to Jacob Lawrence,” Corey quipped.
The exhibit is set to run through Friday, Dec. 31, and visitors can view the prints from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The museum is open for extended hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. the second Friday of each month.
Admission is $7 for adults 13 and older and children 12 and younger are free. Members are admitted into the museum for free and membership opportunities are available at the front desk as well as online.
Masks are required to enter the building and social distancing is requested.
Parking for the museum is available along 5th Street and Lincoln Avenue as well as in the parking lot at the southwest corner of 5th Street and Lincoln Avenue.
All ages are welcome to visit the museum and service animals are allowed.
For more information on the Loveland Museum, go to www.thelovelandmuseum.org.
