Jacob Lawrence Retrospective in Netherlands Examines Artist's Enduring Relevance to American Inequality

A major retrospective of Jacob Lawrence's work, titled 'Jacob Lawrence: African American Modernist,' opened at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Netherlands, in late September 2025. The exhibition, curated by Robbert Roos, presents a comprehensive survey of the artist's career, including his well-known 'Migration' series from 1940-41, print cycles, and previously unseen documentary materials. Lawrence's art consistently addressed racial inequality, social divisions, and political violence in American history, themes the article suggests remain pertinent in contemporary U.S. political discourse. The show employs a two-tiered presentation, with artworks on walls supplemented by low displays providing historical context, quotes, and photographs to aid a primarily Dutch audience. The article positions Lawrence's work as a corrective to sanitized national histories, noting his early research at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which informed series on figures like Toussaint Louverture, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. It discusses Lawrence's geographic connections beyond Harlem, including significant periods in Brooklyn and later Seattle, where he taught at the University of Washington. His travels, including two trips to Nigeria in the 1960s that influenced his art, and his later 'Builders' series are also covered. The article contrasts Lawrence's focus on collective citizenry—exemplified by his 1977 print *The Swearing In*, which depicted the crowd at Jimmy Carter's inauguration—with contemporary political climates. It cites recent related exhibitions and scholarship, arguing against the marginalization of his later work after leaving New York.