February 2005 – April 2006

Jacob Lawrence

In the first of a new series, under a grant from the Department of State's African Bureau, Meridian International Center will send an exhibition of 34 prints entitled Two American Icons: Jacob Lawrence and Lois Mailou Jones to posts in Africa beginning in the late Fall of 2004. Realizing the increasing need to promote a better image of America and its culture abroad, Meridian is working on a series of smaller exhibitions which it plans to make available to posts abroad, a function formerly carried out by the Arts America Office of USIA.

As part of its mission to increase international understanding, MIC works through the arts to promote "cultural diplomacy." Under this initiative, Meridian has organized and brought to the United States a number of major exhibitions from a variety of countries and toured them nationally. Exhibitions of contemporary American art have also been organized by Meridian and circulated abroad. Both of these programs have been enormously successful and Meridian has now sent exhibitions to over 200 venues in the U.S. and abroad. Its exhibitions have been seen by at least one million people.

Jacob Lawrence and Lois Mailou Jones are two of America's best-know artists. Both African Americans, they made their mark on the American art scene in different ways and from different directions. Both shared a strong connection with Haiti, as well as with the Harlem Renaissance. Although their styles are markedly different, both artists were influenced by the world around them.

The Jacob Lawrence and Lois Mailou Jones prints are on loan from the estate collections of the two artists, both of whom are now deceased. The exhibition consists of 28 prints by Jacob Lawrence and 6 by Lois Jones. Although Lawrence produced 69 prints during his lifetime, Lois Jones left less than a dozen. Meridian is grateful to the Gwen Knight Lawrence and the D.C. Moore Gallery in New York, the repository for the Jacob Lawrence works, and to the Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust for making possible the loan of these works.

www.meridian.org/ARTS/Africa