Re-presenting The Migration: Reproductions of Paintings by Jacob Lawrence February 1—July 6, 2008 Following WWI, hundreds of thousands of southern Black Americans migrated north with hopes of finding economic and social freedoms not available in the south. Farming conditions in the south were deteriorating and, while slavery had been abolished decades earlier, most southern Blacks were still living in poverty. In 1941, artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) created a 60-panel artwork, The Migration of the Negro, to record this poignant time in American history. Critics have called it Lawrence's greatest achievement, and hailed it as one of the great visual and social documents of 20th century American art. The Field Museum is pleased to announce that it will display reproductions of this famous and acclaimed work—all 60 paintings—from February 1 through July 6. The paintings are remarkable not only because of their emotional power—but also because Lawrence painted them concurrently, applying the same color across multiple panels to ensure a high degree of visual consistency. The series depicts both the prevailing hardships of the south and the new hardships of the north, which included crowded living conditions, and competition for jobs. Captions written in 1941 by Lawrence and his wife, the artist Gwendolyn Knight, accompany each of the 60 images. "Uprooting yourself from one way of life to make your way in another involves conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle comes a kind of power, and even beauty. I tried to convey this in the rhythm of the pictures, and in the repetition of certain images," Lawrence said of his work before he died. Lawrence had wanted the Migration of the Negro to be displayed together as one work. However shortly after it was completed, the paintings were separated; the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought half of them and The Phillips Collection in Washington DC bought the other half. Recently, just 17 paintings from the group were shown at the Whitney Museum in New York City. A not-for-profit Harlem art gallery, Triple Candie, responded to the Whitney’s “partial” exhibition by organizing a counter-exhibition that consisted of reproductions of all 60 paintings. In collaboration with Triple Candie, The Field Museum will present a similar exhibition of 60 reproductions—displayed together as Lawrence intended—in the Museum’s East Entrance. The exhibition was organized by Triple Candie, Harlem.