Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 47) For artist Jacob Lawrence, Toussaint was an Louverture inspiration n acclaimed artist whose career spanned more than 60 years, Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) is best known for his series of narrative paintings exploring black history and culture. Settling in Harlem in 1930, Jacob Lawrence found inspiration in the thriving African-American community and its art schools and workshops born of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1937–38, Lawrence, then 20 years old, created a series of 41 tempera paintings that encapsulated the modern history of the country known today as Haiti. The series begins with Columbian contact in 1492 and concludes with the 1804 enthronement of JeanJacques Dessalines as the independent nation’s first head of state. But the bulk of the paintings focus on the activities of one mythic figure, the revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. Lawrence’s paintings are part of the Aaron Douglas Collection housed at the Amistad Research Center on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans. The Center holds collections and individual items pertaining to the African and African-American experiences in the United States, and makes these materials available to the public for study. This exhibition marks the first presentation of the entire Toussaint Louverture Series in New Orleans. In addition to the original paintings, the Amistad Research Center also owns the series of 15 related screen prints that Lawrence created in 1986. At the time of his death in June 2000, Lawrence was one of the most widely celebrated African-American visual artist working in the United States. A Jacob Lawrence’s artwork depicting Toussaint L’Ouveture reached back to the Haitian revolutionary’s early manhood, where his good nature aided his coachmanship (above). The portrait at left shows L’Ouveture in his military uniform. Spring 2006/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 47
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.