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JACOB LAWRENCE:
3 SERIES OF PRINTS
GENESIS
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERUTE
HIROSHIMA
From the Collection of Alitash Kebede
List of Works
TOUSSAINT
L'OUVERTURE Series
1986-1997
1. General Toussaint L 'Ouverture, 1986
2. The Capture, 1987
3. To Preserve Their Freedom, 1988
4. The Coachman, 1990
5. Contemplation, 1993
6. St. Marc, 1994
7. Strategy, 1994
8. Flotilla, 1996
9. The Burning, 1997
10. The Opener, 1997
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St.
Marc |
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TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE
The size of the prints
is 32 x 22 inches either horizontal or vertical.
These prints are
based on forty-one paintings from a series also entitled Toussaint
L'Ouverture, which was completed in 1938 and is now in the Aaron
Douglas Collection of the Amistad Research Center, New Orleans.
The paintings were executed in tempera and measure 11 x 19 inches,
significantly smaller in scale than the prints. Lawrence reworked
many of the images during the process of translating them to
silk screen. When an image has been significantly altered from
the original, that fact is noted in the catalogue entry. The
captions Lawrence provided for the paintings at the time of
their execution accompany each of the following entries.
Toussaint L 'Ouverture was a leader in the Haitian revolution.
Born a slave, he rose to become commander in chief of the revolutionary
army. In 1800 he coordinated the effort to draw up Haiti's first
democratic constitution. However, in 1802, before the Republic
was firmly established, Toussaint was arrested by Napoleon Bonaparte's
troops and sent to Paris, where he was imprisoned. He died in
prison the following year. In 1804 Haiti became the first black
Western republic.
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GENESIS Series
Book of Genesis
Light
screenprints on Whatman Print Matt paper
From
hand color-separated photo stencils
Edition
of 50 with 8 AP, 2 pp, 6 HC, 1 BAT, 1 AR, 1 CL
Screens
destroyed
Image:
l9 5/8 x 14¾ (49.8 x 36.5)
Paper:
25 x 19 1/8 (63.5 x (48.6)
Each
print signed bottom right, numbered bottom left in pencil below the
image;
no printer's chop mark.
Published
by the Limited Editions Club, New York; printed at Osiris Screen
Printing,
New York (George Drexel, master printer).
Also
printed in two additional formats:
Exhibition
portfolio
Edition
of 22 with 5 AP, 2 pp, 4 HC, 1 TP, 1 BAT, 1 AR, 1 CL
Image:
195/8 x 14¾ (49.8 x 36.5)
Paper:
26 x 40 (66 x 101.6) Each print signed and inscribed in manner
consistent
with regular edition. Portfolio titled Eight Passages. Each
screenprint
trimmed to image and chine collee onto right-hand side of St. Armand
paper
bearing captions lithographed on left side from mylars hand written by
the artist. Lithography and chine collee by Stone Press Editions,
Seattle
(Kent Lovelace, master printer).
Book Edition of 400 with 50 HC
Each
print signed by artist.
The
prints illustrate and accompany the King James version of the book of
Genesis.
Note:
The full edition information in both portfolio editions incorrectly
states
that the book edition consisted of 425 copies.
"I
was baptized in the Abyssinian Baptist Church [in Harlem] in about
1932.
There I attended church, I attended Sunday school, and I remember the
ministers
giving very passionate sermons pertaining to the Creation. This was
over
fifty years ago, and you know, these things stay with you even though
you
don't realize what an impact these experiences are making on you at the
time. As I was doing the series I think that this was in the back of my
mind, hearing this minister talk about these things" - JACOB LAWRENCE
HIROSHIMA Series
Hiroshima
1983
Eight
screenprints on Somerset paper
From
hand color-separated photo stencils
Edition
of 35 with 10 AP, 5 pp
Screens
destroyed
Image:
12 7/8 x 10 (32.7 x 25.5)
Paper:
14 7/8 x 11½ (37.8 x 28.2)
Each
print signed and dated bottom right Jacob Lawrence 83, numbered bottom
left in pencil below the image; no printer's chop mark.
Published
by the Limited Editions Club, New York; printed by Studio Heinrici, New
York (Alexander Heinrici, master printer). The portfolio includes a signed
poem by Robert Penn Warren.
Also
published as illustrations in Hiroshima, a special edition book (edition
of 1,500) with text by John Hersey. The book includes the Penn Warren poem
and is signed on the colophon page by all three collaborators. Hersey's
text was originally published in the New Yorker, June 1946.
“Several
years ago I was invited by the Limited Editions Club of New York to illustrate
a book of my choosing from a list of the club's many titles. I selected
the book Hiroshima, written by the brilliant writer John Hersey This work
was selected because of its power, insight, scope, and sensitivity as well
as for its overall content My intent was to illustrate a series of events
that were taking place at the moment of the dropping of the bomb... August
6, 1945. The challenge for me was to execute eight works: a marketplace,
a playground, a street scene, a park, farmers, a family scene, a man with
birds, and a boy with a kite. Not a particular country, not a particular
city and not a particular people.
"Is
it not ironic that we have produced great scientists, great musicians,
great orators, chess players, philosophers, poets and great teachers and,
at the same time, we have developed the capability and the genius to create
the means to devastate and to completely destroy our planet earth with
all its life and beauty? How could we develop such creative minds and,
at the same time develop such a destructive instrument? Only God knows
the answer Let us hope that some day at some time, He will give us the
answer to this very perplexing question."
- JACOB LAWRENCE
Aditional Works
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Forward Together |
Morning Still Life |
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Confrontation at the Bridge |
People in Other Rooms
(Harlem Street Scene) |
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The Library |
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