M26664: The 1920s...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots
Prints
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- M26664
- People
-
Jacob Lawrence, American (Atlantic City, NJ 1917 - 2000 Seattle, WA)
- Title
- The 1920s...The Migrants Cast Their Ballots
- Other Titles
- Series/Book Title: Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence
- Classification
- Prints
- Work Type
- Date
- 1974
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/100440
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Screen print printed in seven colors on plus-white Domestic Etching paper
- Technique
- Screen print
- Dimensions
- 87.3 x 66 cm (34 3/8 x 26 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- inscription: l.r in pencil: Jacob Lawrence 1974
- inscription: l.l in pencil: 41/125
- inscription: l.c in pencil: The 1920's...The Migrants cast their Ballots
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Student Print Rental Program, transfer; to Print Department, October 25, 2005.
State, Edition, Standard Reference Number
- Edition
- 41/125
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lorillard, Division of Loews Theatres, Inc., transfer from student print rental program
- Copyright
- © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Accession Year
- 2005
- Object Number
- M26664
- Division
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Contact
- am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
Descriptions
- Commentary
- In the mid-1970s, Jacob Lawrence, an established artist in his 50s, began making screenprints of subjects he had explored in painting throughout his career. His work depicts the African-American experience, as is apparent in this screenprint of migrant workers casting their votes in an election from the 1920s. Much of his work demonstrates his commitment to African Americans achieving racial equality, and he is best know for series on figures such as Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman. In 1940-41, Lawrence executed a series of 60 paintings entitled "The Migration of the Negro," from which this print is thematically derived. After the first world war, millions of blacks left the south and moved to northern cities, where they experienced the freedom to vote for the first time. This screenprint is a complex layering of multiple colors and comes from the portfolio, the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, commissioned by Lorillard, a division of Loews Theaters, Inc. Made in recognition of the American Bicentennial, artists contributing to the portfolio were asked to respond to the question, " what does independence mean to you?"
Publication History
- Judy Murray and Ray Williams, Engaging New Americans, Preparing for US Citizenship with the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2012), ill. p. 66
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Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu