Jacob Lawrence Bar and Grill 
Trah Blunt
Ms. Phillips
Art Appreciation 110
11 June 2015 Jacob Lawrence Jacob Lawrence was an abstract artist who used very bright colors to depict scenes of the black experience or day to day life of African Americans. The painting Bar and Grill by Jacob Lawrence is a detailed abstract painting with a style of expressionism and social realism. Various different vibrant colors were used, and not a lot of continuous shapes occurred throughout the painting. He used this picture to depict the life of segregation from that time period. The painting reflected the difference in white and black population in that there were more figures represented on the white side of the bar than that of the black side. It also shows how the white side was cooled with a ceiling fan while the black side seems to be sweltering. This picture was painted during the height of Jim Crow era. Sadly, this was not an odd occurrence amongst establishments in the south. Mr. Lawrence was not as accustomed to this because he was from the North. It wasn 't that racism didn 't exist in the Northern states, but segregation wasn 't as wide spread in northern areas. From Jacob Lawrence’s point of view, he experienced this racism and segregation first hand being a man of color. Starting in 1890 with a “separate but equal” status for African Americans, the Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that were set up to enforce racial segregation. This segregation was implemented in all public facilities in the Southern United States until the year 1965. Being born and raised in the North, Jacob Lawrence was not as directly affected by this segregation, but he still felt the pain of the others in his race. Lawrence moved to the city of New Orleans in the late summer of 1941. It was this change of location that inspired him to depict the harsh settings in which he viewed. He felt the need to express this daily life and struggle that his people suffered. Some of his works depict African
Ms. Phillips
Art Appreciation 110
11 June 2015 Jacob Lawrence Jacob Lawrence was an abstract artist who used very bright colors to depict scenes of the black experience or day to day life of African Americans. The painting Bar and Grill by Jacob Lawrence is a detailed abstract painting with a style of expressionism and social realism. Various different vibrant colors were used, and not a lot of continuous shapes occurred throughout the painting. He used this picture to depict the life of segregation from that time period. The painting reflected the difference in white and black population in that there were more figures represented on the white side of the bar than that of the black side. It also shows how the white side was cooled with a ceiling fan while the black side seems to be sweltering. This picture was painted during the height of Jim Crow era. Sadly, this was not an odd occurrence amongst establishments in the south. Mr. Lawrence was not as accustomed to this because he was from the North. It wasn 't that racism didn 't exist in the Northern states, but segregation wasn 't as wide spread in northern areas. From Jacob Lawrence’s point of view, he experienced this racism and segregation first hand being a man of color. Starting in 1890 with a “separate but equal” status for African Americans, the Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that were set up to enforce racial segregation. This segregation was implemented in all public facilities in the Southern United States until the year 1965. Being born and raised in the North, Jacob Lawrence was not as directly affected by this segregation, but he still felt the pain of the others in his race. Lawrence moved to the city of New Orleans in the late summer of 1941. It was this change of location that inspired him to depict the harsh settings in which he viewed. He felt the need to express this daily life and struggle that his people suffered. Some of his works depict African
Cited: 1. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/lawrence.html 2. http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/ 3. http://www.wikiart.org/en/jacob-lawrence/bar-and-grill-1941#close 4. http://www.biography.com/people/jacob-lawrence-9375562#synopsis