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Catalog Data

Artist:
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000  Search this
Medium:
tempera on fiberboard
Dimensions:
24 x 29 7/8 in. (60.9 x 75.8 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1960
Luce Center Label:
Jacob Lawrence researched many of his paintings of African American events by reading history books and novels. Looking back at his high school years, he remembered that black culture was "never studied seriously like regular subjects," and so he had to teach himself by visiting libraries and museums (Lawrence, 1940, Downtown Gallery Papers, Archives of American Art, quoted in Wheat, <em>Jacob Lawrence, American Painter</em>, 1986). This colorful view of a crowded reading room may show the 135th Street Library---now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture---<!--StartFragment -->where the country's  first significant collection of African American literature, history, and prints opened in 1925. Everybody appears absorbed in their books, and the standing figure in the front looking at African art may represent the artist as a young man, delving deeper into his heritage.
Topic:
Figure group  Search this
African American  Search this
Recreation\leisure\reading  Search this
Object\written matter\book  Search this
Architecture Interior\civic\library  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Object number:
1969.47.24
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
On View:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd Floor, North Wing
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk71253e63c-22cc-4117-a381-f2accdc8af60
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1969.47.24