Jacob Lawrence, the extraordinary and dynamic painter who achieved worldwide fame for his depictions of African-American life, passed away June 9 at age 82. The artist was probably best-known for his landmark narrative series of paintings The Migration of the American Negro, which chronicled the mass migration of Southern blacks to the North in search of work following World War I.
It is unfortunate that Lawrence did not live to see the two-volume publication of his artwork currently being developed in his honor. Peter T. Nesbett is the founder and executive director of the Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonne Project, a nonprofit research organization ...