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Jacob Lawrence Interviews

What made this series complete in Lawrence’s estimation—what tied many together as one—was the vision of collective action, a shared decision to get on the train or start walking and head north. . . . I believe Lawrence’s Migration Series presents us with a metaphor for the human condition—our desire to be free—to seek, to strive, to overcome, and to arrive. As he saw it, “This was a continuous part of the—I started to say the Black struggle—but the American struggle from slavery.” —Elizabeth Hutton Turner, 2016

Jacob Lawrence Interviews

Of the many interviews Jacob Lawrence granted over his lifetime, the two filmed (and until now unpublished) interviews commissioned by The Phillips Collection in 1992 and in 2000 are perhaps most distinguished by their primacy and recency in the archive of Lawrence scholarship and exhibition history. The October 2, 1992, interview was the first to focus exclusively on the Migration Series; the 2000 interview, done in preparation for his last lifetime retrospective, was, in fact, the artist’s last such conversation.

Jacob Lawrence on Individual Panels of The Migration Series

  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 1 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 1 of The Migration Series [ 0:39 ]
    View Panel 1
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 6 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 6 of The Migration Series [ 1:15 ]
    View Panel 6
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 9 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 9 of The Migration Series [ 2:20 ]
    View Panel 9
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 11 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 11 of The Migration Series [ 1:19 ]
    View Panel 11
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 15 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 15 of The Migration Series [ 1:41 ]
    View Panel 15
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 19 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 19 of The Migration Series [ 2:07 ]
    View Panel 19
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 22 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 22 of The Migration Series [ 3:07 ]
    View Panel 22
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 25 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 25 of The Migration Series [ 2:20 ]
    View Panel 25
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 27 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 27 of The Migration Series [ 2:20 ]
    View Panel 27
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 31 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 31 of The Migration Series [ 1:52 ]
    View Panel 31
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 44 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 44 of The Migration Series [ 1:11 ]
    View Panel 44
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 45 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 45 of The Migration Series [ 2:12 ]
    View Panel 45
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 52 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 52 of The Migration Series [ 1:40 ]
    View Panel 52
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 53 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 53 of The Migration Series [ 1:44 ]
    View Panel 53
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 54 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 54 of The Migration Series [ 2:39 ]
    View Panel 54
  • Jacob Lawrence on Panel 58 of The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Panel 58 of The Migration Series [ 1:31 ]
    View Panel 58

Jacob Lawrence on The Migration Series

  • Jacob Lawrence on The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on The Migration Series [ 1:16 ]
  • JL 1-3-b

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on working with Gwendolyn Knight on The Migration Series [ 1:51 ]
  • JL 6-on media

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on media used in The Migration Series [ 1:09 ]
  • JL 1-1-a and JL 1-1-b

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Edith Halpert's American Negro Art exhibition [ 2:19 ]
  • JL 2-2-i

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Edith Halpert's sale of The Migration Series [ 0:40 ]
  • JL 1-1-g

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on his familial ties to migration [ 1:40 ]
  • Jacob Lawrence on newspaper accounts of migration

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on newspaper accounts of migration [ 1:12 ]
  • JL 1-2-e

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on beauty and struggle during the Great Migration [ 1:06 ]
  • Jacob Lawrence on symbols of movement in The Migration Series

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on symbols of movement in The Migration Series [ 0:42 ]

Jacob Lawrence on his life in Harlem and artistic inspiration

  • JL 1-2-h and 1-2-i

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Harlem's Apollo Theater and Studio 306 [ 2:46 ]
  • Jacob Lawrence on Jay Leyda, former MoMA film curator, and meeting José Clemente Orozco

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Jay Leyda, former MoMA film curator, and meeting José Clemente Orozco [ 1:13 ]
  • JL 1-3-i

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on mentor Charles Alston [ 1:19 ]
  • JL 1-1-z

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on evolution of subject matter drawn from the Harlem community [ 1:33 ]
  • JL 2-2-b

    Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight
    Jacob Lawrence on Augusta Savage [ 1:29 ]
  • JL 1-1-d

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on mentors in the Harlem community [ 1:04 ]
  • JL 2-3-i

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on Harlem's collaborative artistic community [ 1:51 ]
  • JL 1-2-ab

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on growing up in the Harlem community [ 1:24 ]
  • Jacob Lawrence on Josef Albers and Black Mountain College

    Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight
    Jacob Lawrence on Josef Albers and Black Mountain College. Pictured with Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. [ 1:39 ]
  • JL 2-2-a CHRON

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on his series The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture [ 1:19 ]
  • JL 2-3-e CHRON

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on his experience in a mental hospital [ 0:41 ]
  • JL 1-2-3

    Jacob Lawrence
    Jacob Lawrence on his first one-man show [ 0:49 ]