Jacob Lawrence (American, born 1917) Seaman’s Belt, 1945 Gouache on paper, 21 x 29" Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson to The Martha Jackson Collection, 1974

Jacob Lawrence first began to draw with crayons as a child, when his mother left him at the Utopia Neighborhood House in Harlem for safekeeping while she worked. The family had settled in Harlem in 1930, after living in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Lawrence was born. Lawrence had virtually no formal art education, but as a young man in Harlem, he was part of a group of young artists who traveled to galleries in New York, arguing and talking about what they had seen. He visited Alfred Stieglitz’s An American Place and was especially interested in the paintings he saw by John Marin and Arthur Dove. As a young black man, he said, "you felt the same way about going into every art institution or gallery. No one would keep you out, but it wasn’t hospitable. You knew you were being watched. But you learned to live with it."

Lawrence’s first work was in egg tempera, but his favorite medium was gouache, an opaque watercolor. His first etching series dealing with black history was completed after working for the WPA from 1938-1940. This series, "The Migration of the Negro," documented the story of southern blacks who migrated to the north in search of work after World War II.

Lawrence also produced many other series, including those on the lives of Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Frederick B. Douglass, and Toussaint-Louverture (telling the story of Haiti gaining independence from the French in 1804). He had his first one-man show at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in New York. This was the first time a "Negro" artist’s work was shown outside of Harlem, a rare and momentous event. He also documented his own experiences in Hillside Hospital, a sanitarium where he was treated briefly for stress in 1949 and his experiences in the Coast Guard from 1943 to 1945. After 1945, he created a dramatic series called "War." In the 1970s, Lawrence settled in Seattle with his wife, artist Gwendolyn Knight, to teach and paint.

Seaman’s Belt shows Lawrence’s interest in pattern and the visual details that tell a story. This painting is not typical of his work, which is often narrative and figurative; it gives us a glimpse, however, into how the artist trained his eyes, making a still life of objects that intrigued him. Even though the belt, cigarettes, and keys are inanimate, they have been painted in a lively manner that imbues them with energy and presence. Gouache, a water-based pigment, is different from watercolors in that white paint is added to the medium, giving an opacity to the colors.

— Mariann Smith

SUGGESTIONS FOR HANDS-ON AND DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

• Arrange your classroom into a circle of student seats, with a space in the middle. On the floor in the center (or on a table) arrange a group of interesting items for a still-life drawing or painting. The still life should look interesting from all directions. Ask the students to choose one or two items to draw. Let them break the objects down into simple shapes—circles, rectangles, triangles. Let them know that making the object exactly as they see it is not what is important. What is important is to fill the paper with their pencil drawing and make their drawing interesting to look at. After they are done with their drawing, they should make notes on which colors they will use. Take the still life away and let them color their drawings. They should choose and apply a background color first.
• Play a game where students look at the slides in this packet. Show the slide for two minutes and then turn the slide off and ask the students to remember everything they can about the picture—objects, colors, etc. It might help to have them write for a few minutes so they won’t forget their impressions.
• Students could design belts for people in different occupations, then draw or make them out of fabric, etc.