20 Interesting Facts about the artist Jacob Lawrence

1. Jacob Lawrence was born on the 7th of September 1917.
2. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
3. Lawrence was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight.
4. He married Gwendolyn in 1970.
5. He trained as a painter at the Harlem Art Workshop inside the New York Public Library.
6. He first made a name for himself in Harlem in the 1930s.
7. Jacob was not interested in many of the ideas of the artists from the Harlem Renaissance.
8. He did find inspiration for his artwork in the Harlem community.
9. He called his style of painting dynamic cubism.
10. From 1940-41 he created a sixty panel narrative, The Migration of the Negro, based on his personal family experiences, people in the community, and in depth research.
11. In 1942 he was drafted into the U.S Coast Guard.
12. The Hatian military leader Toussaint L'Ouverture had a big influence on his art work.
13. His work includes several pieces about John Brown, abolitionist, and Harriet Tubman.
14. His work often portrayed important periods in African American history.
15. He made exposing the reality of black history through art his life long pursuit.
16. Many of the images in his art are restrained, he doesn't show actual graphics and details.
17. His Migration Series made him nationally famous when featured in the 1941 issue of Fortune Magazine.
18. He was awarded the U.S National medal of the Arts in 1990.
19. He was art professor at the University of Washington.
20. He received the Washington Medal of Merit in 1998.