The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Jacob Lawrence

The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Jacob Lawrence will celebrate the artistry of Jacob Lawrence, an important American painter and print maker. Jacob Lawrence (1918-2000) created 15 dramatic and colorful silk-screen prints based on a series of 41 paintings entitled The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture that he completed in 1938. This exhibition will present all fifteen silk-screen prints from the Curtis Ransom Collection of African American Art, alongside the Dallas Museum of Art’s painting The Visitors, and a related portrait photograph by Arnold Newman of the artist from the DMA’s collections.

Toussaint L’Ouverture was a leader in the Haitian revolution. Born a slave, he became commander in chief of the revolutionary army in 1800. In 1804, Haiti became the first black Western republic. L’Ouverture was instrumental in drafting independent Haiti’s first democratic constitution. Through these powerful works about L’Ouverture and the Haitian revolution, Lawrence presents his vision of humanity’s struggle toward unity and equality.

The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Jacob Lawrence is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and curated by Roslyn A. Walker, Senior Curator, The Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas and The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art, and Charles Wylie, The Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art.

Images:

Jacob Lawrence, The Opener, 1997, silk screen on Rising Two Ply Rag paper, collection of Curtis P. Ransom