English 
Nederlands 
Deutsch 
Kunsthal KAdE exhibited the first retrospective exhibition in Europe of the African-American artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). Lawrence made his breakthrough in 1941 with his iconic series of paintings entitled 'The Great Migration', a series consisting of 60 panels, half of which are on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and half at the Phillips Collection in Washington. In this series, he tells the story of the mass migration of the Black population from the south of the United States to the north. Throughout his oeuvre, Jacob Lawrence focused on African-American history. Jacob Lawrence developed his own autonomous painting style in the twilight years of the Harlem Renaissance and is considered one of the most important African-American painters of the 20th century.
"In Europe he is unjustly less known, reason for Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort to come up with Jacob Lawrence. African American Modernist, a major retrospective of this overwhelming artist." NRC 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴
African-American modernist Jacob Lawrence
The retrospective in Amersfoort encompassed his entire body of work, from his early pieces in Harlem, New York, in the 1930s, to his final decades in Seattle. The exhibition featured 70 paintings, 25 drawings, and 75 prints—along with photographs and objects from the artist’s estate. Among the works on display were several panels from his famous ‘Migration Series’, panels from the ‘Struggle Series' (a series that was the subject of a traveling exhibition in the United States a few years ago) and paintings and drawings surrounding Harriet Tubman, the woman who, through the Underground Railroad rescued dozens of enslaved people from the U.S. South.
“Jacob Lawrence shaped the African-American experience. Sixty years after the fact, his art is painfully currentl." Volkskrant ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Important themes in the artist's oeuvre include life in Harlem in the mid-twentieth century, African-American history, the struggle of the Black population for civil rights and – at the end of his life – “builders” as a symbol of craftsmen who help build the country. Jacob Lawrence's work is characterised by a figurative, narrative style, in which he uses “cubist” colour fields in compositions without any emphatic depth effect.
In addition to the series on Tubman, Jacob Lawrence painted series on important historical figures such as Fredrick Douglass (champion of the abolition of slavery), Toussaint L'Ouverture (resistance fighter, who as a former slave was at the forefront of the first autonomous Black republic of Haiti) and John Brown (a white abolitionist who was sentenced to death after plotting an uprising against slavery). The exhibition will focus extensively on the background of the African-American histories that Lawrence depicted.
“Nowhere is there a word too many. As you read, look at another painting and take in the next little text, you know: this is not only very good but also very important. No president with dictatorial tendencies should simply try to erase that..” Museum Magazine
Get to know artist Jacob Lawrence
In the United States, Lawrence is a well-known name and part of many permanent collections of major art museums. In Europe, he is virtually unknown.
“Individual works [by Jacob Lawrence] had occasionally been exhibited in Europe, but a comprehensive overview of his work in Europe was still lacking. Now that has been achieved, and the result is spectacular. The exhibition traces Lawrence's work from his earliest pieces, when he was a young man in Harlem capturing everyday life, to his later series. This is remarkable, because many of his paintings are on permanent display in American museums. Individual series have been the subject of exhibitions in recent years, but such a large retrospective is truly unique.” The Mirror
This first retrospective of his work in Europe not only offered the chance to become acquainted with his multifaceted artistic body of work, but also provided an opportunity to explore the historical narratives he depicted in his paintings. The exhibition featured both key advocates for the abolition of slavery—such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman—and moments from the U.S. struggle for freedom in general, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in particular. In addition, Lawrence spent decades painting daily life in Harlem, New York.
“Jacob Lawrence: An African American artist who inspires a desire to understand the broader world in which Lawrence worked, including the social history, artistic networks, and political urgency of the time.” GLEAN
In order to tell you more about the life, oeuvre and historical stories behind Jacob Lawrence's works, we have created a website Here, we take you on a journey through the life of Jacob Lawrence. We’ll tell you about his upbringing, his youth work in Harlem, New York, in the 1930s, and his final decades in Seattle. We’ll also highlight various periods, works, and historical figures he depicted.
“That [work that has always been socially engaged, presenting a perspective that had previously been missing from the art world] makes his work not only extraordinary but also urgent. For it is precisely those topics that are once again under pressure in the U.S., with a government that wants to actively censor art it deems too ‘woke.’ The incredibly rich retrospective in Amersfoort is a tour de force of loans from American institutions. Room after room, Lawrence’s oeuvre poses a single, recurring question: Whose history is it?” Volkskrant ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Additional information
Visual artist Barbara Earl Thomas—a former student of Lawrence’s in Seattle—paid tribute to the master with four specially commissioned works.
For the exhibition, poet and performer Dean Bowen has made an artistic contribution to each room in the form of texts reflecting on the works of Jacob Lawrence.
A comprehensive catalog has been published featuring all the works from the exhibition and the accompanying documentary material. The book—288 pages in color—is still available through Ideabooks.
There is also a graphic novel about the life of Jacob Lawrence created by comic book artist Rashad Doucet.
Loans for the exhibition come from private individuals and museums in the United States.
Kunsthal KAdE previously featured six works by Jacob Lawrence in 2020 in the exhibition 'Tell Me Your Story' by curator Rob Perrée.
The exhibition ‘Jacob Lawrence, African American Modernist’ was on view from September 27, 2025, to January 4, 2026.
The exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous support of, among others, the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, the Mondriaan Fund, and the Blockbuster Fund (VandenEnde Foundation, the Cultuurfonds, VSBfonds, and the VriendenLoterij)), Vriendenloterij, Fonds 21, het Cultuur fonds and National Cultural Heritage Agency (Indemnity Scheme).
In Amersfoort, the exhibition received a lot of attention, partner Citymarketing Amersfoort created a detailed webpage with information about Jacob Lawrence and his work.
