The Great Migration: An American Story Summary and Reviews

The Great Migration: An American Story
by Jacob Lawrence

The Great Migration: An American Story
List Price: $8.99
Our Price: $4.55
You Save: $4.44 (49%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.17 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Jacob Lawrence
Illustrator: Jacob Lawrence
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-10-30
ISBN: 0064434281
Number of pages: 48
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Publisher: HarperCollins

Book Reviews of The Great Migration: An American Story

Book Review: Art-lovers for life
Summary: 5 Stars

Parents hoping to introduce their children to modern American art could do worse than to buy this edition reproducing 60 paintings by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of the finest African American artists in U.S. history.

First published for children in a 1993 limited edition, with a poem by Walter Dean Myers, this volume reproduces the Great Migration series that Lawrence created in 1940 and 1941 to tell the story of the African American migration north, from the plantations and cotton fields of the antebellum era.

Begun within a year after Lawrence completed a magnificent Harriet Tubman series, these tempura colored, poster paint works made Jacob Lawrence's career. It's easy to see why. Bold and unforgiving, these vibrant works grew from Lawrence's own childhood migration--from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Easton, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia and finally, at 13, to Harlem--his exposure to African-American culture and his intensive training in the Utopia Children's House and New Deal-sponsored Harlem Art Workshop of the 1930s.

At that time, the WPA was still funding public art murals, but Lawrence was too young to gain a commission. Instead, he determined to show the African-American struggle for freedom in real-life stories that would tie the past to the present.

From 1938 to 1941, he used the New York public library for research, creating in swift succession five series of paintings telling the stories of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and The Migration of the Negro.

In the last of these, Lawrence hoped to speak artistically of a mass escape from the rural, discriminatory and unjust South--a region of poverty and illiteracy--into an anxious era of hope and expectation in the North. The paintings depicted passage, with railways, train cars, suitcases, and hordes of people constantly in motion. Their visages and body language spoke in terms of expectation and fear. Lawrence wove bold colors and themes throughout the series, thereby joining the paintings into a unit.

In a documentary shown in a museum tour of Lawrence's work, the artist said he "didn't think in terms of history in that series. ...It was like I was doing a portrait of something." Portraits were "a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers."

Lawrence's extraordinary talent was recognized when he was only 24, with the 1941 exhibition of these paintings in the downtown gallery of art dealer Edith Halpert, who had beforehand exclusively shown the work of white artists. So breathtaking were the paintings (as they remain), they instantly transported Lawrence across the U.S. racial divide of that era, making him deservedly famous. The Philips Gallery in Washington D.C. purchased the odd-numbered paintings; the Museum of Modern Art in New York took the even ones.

Treat your kids to this triumph of the human spirit, and to the fine accompanying Myers poem. These paintings make children into art-lovers, for life. Alyssa A. Lappen

Arts & Photography Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Arts & Photography Books
Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book ImageBarack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book
Five Ties Publishing; Published: 2009-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.17
Price in other shops: $39.95
Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy ImageDomino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy
by Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello, Dara Caponigro
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-10-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.07
Price in other shops: $32.00
Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks ImageSock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks
by Cookie A
Interweave Press; Published: 2009-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.61
Price in other shops: $22.95
Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual ImagePhotoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual
by Barbara Brundage
Pogue Press; Published: 2008-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.67
Price in other shops: $44.99
Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa ImageVanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa
by R.A. Scotti
Knopf; Published: 2009-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.47
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 ImageThe Digital Photography Book, Volume 2
by Scott Kelby
Peachpit Press; Published: 2008-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops: $24.99
Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) ImageUnderstanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition)
by Bryan Peterson
Amphoto Books; Published: 2004-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.77
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes (Voices That Matter) ImageThe Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes (Voices That Matter)
by Joe McNally
New Riders Press; Published: 2009-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.95
Price in other shops: $39.99
The Digital Photography Book ImageThe Digital Photography Book
by Scott Kelby
Pearson Education; Peachpit Press; Published: 2006-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.71
Price in other shops: $24.99
Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (Indigenous Americas) ImageEverything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (Indigenous Americas)
by Paul Chaat Smith
Univ Of Minnesota Press; Published: 2009-04-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.16
Price in other shops: $21.95
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Train to Somewhere ImageTrain to Somewhere
by Eve Bunting
Sandpiper; Published: 2000-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.14
Price in other shops: $6.95
Dandelions ImageDandelions
by Eve Bunting
Sandpiper; Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops: $7.00
Tar Beach ImageTar Beach
by Faith Ringgold
Dragonfly Books; Published: 1996-12-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops: $6.99
Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories ImageRomare Bearden: Collage of Memories
by Jan Greenberg
Harry N. Abrams; Published: 2003-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.46
Price in other shops: $17.95
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky ImageAunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
by Faith Ringgold
Dragonfly Books; Published: 1995-12-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.53
Price in other shops: $6.99
Me and Uncle Romie: A Story Inspired by the Life and Art of Romare Beardon ImageJerome Lagarrigue - Me and Uncle Romie: A Story Inspired by the Life and Art of Romare Beardon
by Claire Hartfield
Dial; Published: 2002-12-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.05
Price in other shops: $16.99
Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963-2000), a Catalogue Raisonne ImageJacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963-2000), a Catalogue Raisonne
by Peter T. Nesbett
University of Washington Press; Published: 2005-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.97
Price in other shops: $24.95
Jacob Lawrence (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) ImageJacob Lawrence (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
by Mike Venezia
Children's Press(CT); Published: 2000-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.13
Price in other shops: $6.95
Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence ImageStory Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence
by John Duggleby
Chronicle Books; Published: 1998-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.78
Price in other shops: $16.99
Harriet and the Promised Land ImageHarriet and the Promised Land
by Jacob Lawrence
Aladdin; Published: 1997-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.91
Price in other shops: $7.99