Artist: Jacob Lawrence

Date: 1940-41

Medium: Casein tempera on hardboard

Culture of Origin: Black Art in the U.S.

[Picture #1] - This painting is part of a series depicting the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North. Through intense color and dynamic composition, Lawrence captures the movement, strife, and optimism of an uprooted people seeking new opportunity and identity in a transforming social landscape.

[Picture #2] - This religious painting is an example of how Spanish colonial art combined European styles with local Latin American ones. The image of the Virgin Mary, who was revered as a religious and cultural icon, shows how identity was negotiated in colonial Latin America through the blending of indigenous, African, and European artistic traditions.

[Picture #3] - O'Keeffe's dramatic cityscape of the Radiator Building in New York City depicts a sense of identity shaped by modernity and urbanization. The lights aglow against the darkening sky recall the dynamism of the 20th century and the redefinition of personal and national identity in a world rapidly industrialized.