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Arthur Dove, Distraction, 1928, brush and black ink and watercolor, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.42.1

Distraction

Arthur Dove · 1928 · brush and black ink and watercolor ·  Accession ID  1973.42.1

Three people with dark brown skin lie on a marigold-orange ground that extends toward a high horizon line in this stylized, vertical painting. An ant and two other bugs cling to a screen of tall, moss-green, flame-shaped leaves that span the width of the composition and separate us from the people. Beyond the leaves, the large soles and rounded toes of the woman’s feet are almost half the height of the painting. She holds a rifle against her body, which is enclosed in a mostly round, periwinkle-blue shape with narrow strips of cranberry-red around the top, left, and bottom. Her head is tilted sharply to our left, her ear near her shoulder so her face points upward in profile. Her nose and mouth are created with thin strokes of golden yellow. Her closed eyes are marked with slivers of white, and a raspberry-pink scarf covers her hair. A slender green stem with pointed leaves rises at an angle next to her head. Beyond her, a man lies with his body curled, so his body curves toward us with his head to our right. He wears only black, shin-length pants. His bald head rests on crossed arms, and his ankles are also crossed. His closed eyes are painted with white and his features outlined in gold, like the woman. Just behind him, a woman curls around an object held in one large hand. Fields of pink and blue, in the same shades as the other woman, read as a blue cap and skirt, and a pink wrap or blanket. A round, brown shape within an off-white field appears to be a baby cradled close to her head. One tall, blade-like leaf grows up behind her shoulders. The orange ground comes to a point to our left of center and dips down to our right. The area beneath the straight horizon line is filled in with midnight blue, nearly black. Above, a sapphire-blue band fills the top quarter of the composition. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “Jacob Lawrence 67.”
Jacob Lawrence, Daybreak - A Time to Rest, 1967, tempera on hardboard, Anonymous Gift, 1973.8.1

Daybreak - A Time to Rest

Jacob Lawrence · 1967 · tempera on hardboard ·  Accession ID  1973.8.1

Painted and drawn with areas of flat, vibrant colors, we look slightly down onto a bustling street market in this stylized, horizontal scene. It is created almost entirely with shades of sky and royal blue, buttercup and harvest yellow, caramel and ash brown, and spearmint green with only a few touches of brick and crimson red. The people all have black-colored skin with their features outlined in white. They sit, stand, gather, or walk along stalls lining the street that extends away from us. Some wear caps, headdresses, or are bareheaded. They wear wraps or togas that mostly leave arms bare. Some carry goods on their heads, sit and eat, hold children and babies, or reach for wares. One person holds a white chicken and another leads a couple of goats along the street. The inverted, narrow V of the street meets the shallow V of the rooflines of the buildings or awnings of the stalls just above the center of the composition. The upside-down triangular filling the distant area between the rooflines has a dark yellow ground where densely packed tables, carts, buildings, people, and several chickens are tiny in scale. A strip of blue along the top edge of the painting suggests the sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in graphite in the lower right corner, “Jacob Lawrence 64.”
Jacob Lawrence, Street to Mbari, 1964, glue tempera, opaque watercolor and graphite on wove paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke, 1993.18.1

Street to Mbari

Jacob Lawrence · 1964 · glue tempera, opaque watercolor and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1993.18.1