Photo credit: Barbara Earl Thomas photographed Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight
ID: A zoomed in photograph of an older black couple posing for a portrait. The man is wearing an orange turtleneck looking into the camera while the woman is wearing a red cowl neck and slightly looking away from the camera.
Andrea Patterson, CCO
Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Andrea brings the historical context to the story and the inspired recreation of a portrait of Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence two artists who worked, taught and honed their individual styles together during the Harlem Renaissance, all whilst sharing a loving marriage.
ID: An up close black and white picture of a black woman with short black hair and a big smile in front of a plain background.
The 1920s and 30’s in Harlem was a time of rebirth, community, and artistic expression known to many as the Harlem Renaissance. An era when Black people from all over the world found themselves in Harlem, making new lives out of what they brought with them mixed and the raw elements of New York City. There was a surge of voices coming through art forms ranging from the literary world, dance, theatre, visual arts, vocal and instrumental music, composition, and more. The burst of intellect and creativity overflowed and not only were these new Harlemites making art, they were making Love. Whether the art of love or the love of art; two artists in particular supported each other’s renaissance by doing both. Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence met at The Harlem Community Art Center in the late 1930s where they both worked and were taught by Augusta Savage (Sculptor, Art Teacher, and Community Art Program Director).
Inspiration
This hand drawn rendering of Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight is by THENCE illustrator and digital artist Nikita Lai Jing Tse. Further along in this piece we share how Lawrence and Knight inspired Tse, especially as the couple impacted the art world. The drawn recreation is based on a photographic portrait of Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight contributed online by Barbara Earl Thomas (see this article's cover photo).
ID: A black and white drawing of an older black couple posing for a portrait.
Gwendolyn Knight, born in Bridgetown, Barbados in the West Indies, moved to the U.S at the age of seven and eventually relocated to New York City with her family as a teenager. After a typical school day, Knight would take classes with Augusta Savage where she gained a deep interest in creating work that reflected personal and cultural identities of Black people. Knight continued to study art at Howard University and developed an affinity towards portraits where she sought to capture emotional narratives in her figurative paintings and prints.
Jacob Lawrence born in Atlantic City, NJ moved to New York City as a teenager and studied with Augusta Savage in Harlem as well. Like Knight, Lawrence’s art was strongly based in figuration. He was deeply committed to capturing the experiences of Black Americans and is known worldwide for his series on The Great Migration.
By 1941 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence were married and shared 59 years of making art on their own accords, inspired by one another, while being each others most valuable critics. As I learned more about these dynamic artists, I thought of the love that goes beyond Eros. I thought of the love of community and the enduring need for it. How community can become family and how critical it’s always been for our survival and ability to thrive. The Art of Living, as I call it.
Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence spent their lives immersed in making art, love, community, and paths for us to travel as we dare to enter into the realm of Love.
Nikita Lai-Jing Tse
THENCE illustrator and digital artist, Tse shares here the inspirations that drove her rendering of a portrait Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. Tse is the Art editor and creator behind crafts available on THIS MONTH, and also recently illustrated Displaced Goshway's Journey
ID: An up close black and white photograph of a smiling young Asian woman with long straight black hair.
I created this digital artwork of Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, which I hope encapsulates my complex feelings in paying tribute to these great artists that continue their inspiration of the past and present celebrating Black History Month with love. Learning about Jacob Lawrence’s life was a rich retrospective into his approach. His creativity was expressed by working with various mediums like tempera (a quick drying paint), ink, gouache and watercolor. He also experimented in many artistic styles to best shed light into not only the Black American lifestyle but boldly grasped imagery with rich colors and geometric compositions—showing how African Americans have lived. Lawrence didn't shy away from struggle, war, and prejudice that shaped all Americans at the time.
Black American voices and experiences were given a chance to shine via the artworld, through his books, and his contributions to various museums over the years. While researching more about Jacob's life, as an outsider myself of American culture, I was blown away as I came across a curious photo contributed online by Barbara Earl Thomas—showing Gwen Knight and Jacob Lawrence. This sent me down a rabbit hole of not only how Gwendolyn was Jacob's wife, love in life, and muse in art, but also Gwen's artistic journey.
Though Gwen had a very different journey throughout her training and early professional years, she stayed connected to herself and through her flaunted passions of her love for human intimacy, backgrounds, and animals with artwork that she created and collected. At the age of seventy after her husband passed, she decided to release her work and show her honed skills. Each brushstroke formed an ethereal softness and reflects a love of life captured with paint.
Gwen in her later years thrived by constantly creating art works solidifying her style and her success. Her achievements are inspiring where she dared to create her own path. For her, building her career "was not a sprint but a marathon" and she went the distance. A true power couple fully utilizing their passions and art that carved out a path for African American artists nationwide and now the world. Their love, battles, and talent will still continue shaping the minds of future generations willing to reflect on and cherish the past.