His art tells the story of his communities, the African American experience, and life in Harlem.
The abstract figures and flat primary colors that would become the hallmarks of Lawrence’s style are already evident in his early works, which document life in Harlem.
Lawrence attended free art classes at Utopia Children’s House, where he showed a talent for creating lively decorative masks, a motif that would later figure strongly in his narrative painting. At the Harlem Art Workshop (sponsored by the Works Progress Administration) in 1932, he studied under Charles H. Alston.
Through Alston, he met artists and writers associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglas, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright.
The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence.
From “Art with Miss H.”