1905 Building

Jacob Lawrence: The Harriet Tubman Series presented a series of 31 poignant paintings on loan from the Hampton University Museum, Virginia. One of the foremost African American artists of this century, Lawrence (1917–2000) used cycles of paintings to explore the pathos of the African-American diaspora and the struggles of folk heroes. In the Harriet Tubman series of 1939, Lawrence documents the life of the ex-slave in astute graphic terms and with compositional rigor. Tubman was a driving force in the Underground Railroad, and each of the paintings in the exhibition has as its title an extensive text derived from historical documents. 

This exhibition was organized by Curator Susan Krane.