unofficial blog for course ART090

Lehigh University
Art Architecture and Design
113 Research Drive
Building C
Bethlehem, PA 18015

Labor Day, Maya

Child Labor Commentary

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78530?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=3418&page=1

Like Romano and Hine, Lawrence does a great job at commentating on child labor. This is artwork by Jacob Lawrence who as his subject has captured the movement of African Americans from the South to North during and after WW1. Under this painting it reads “Child labor and a lack of education was one of the other reasons for people wishing to leave their homes 1940-41”. Lawrence expresses here that there is a large brutality involved with child labor around the time period of the First World War.

It has been stated that the vivid colors shown in the materials that the people are carrying “reflect an aesthetic that itself had migrated from the South”. Lawrence tries to capture the hardships faced in the South around 80 years ago and the devastating effects that the hardships have brought to the people. The people in this painting have their backs are arched in response to their aching from the work that they have been put through.

Leave a Reply