Imagined as avant-garde shapes and rendered in bright tones, this work is celebrated as much for its subject matter as its Harlem-inspired aesthetic. This colorful collection of paintings tells the story of the Great Migration, a mass exodus of over 6 million African Americans fleeing the segregated South to urbanized areas across the country.
At just 23 years old, he completed his Migration Series. Jacob Lawrence was born in New Jersey in 1918. In 1935, she co-founded the Harlem Artists Guild, an organization that advised the neighborhood’s African American artists and, in 1937, she established the Harlem Community Art Center, where she led sculpting classes and helped launch the careers of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence. Today, Savage's role in the Renaissance is mostly attached to teaching and advocacy. After earning her degree (an entire year early), she was asked by the Harlem Library to create a bust of civil rights activist and writer W. In 1921, she moved to New York City, where she attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a scholarship-based school.
Known today as the Harlem Renaissance, this “golden age” of art, literature, and music transformed the Harlem neighborhood into a cultural hub for African Americans, with Augusta Savage‘s many contributions at its core. In 1918, a groundbreaking movement emerged in New York City.