Confrontation at the Bridge

Confrontation at the Bridge takes as its subject the 1955 civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, some fifty miles.  Again and again the marchers were stopped at the Edmmond Pettus Bridge just outside Selma. In Confrontation the dog is joined by menacing clouds with sharp points aimed at the crowd of people on the bridge. The people on the bridge, symbols of persistence and endurance, do not falter. Internationally renown, Jacob Lawrence was a great American painter of history and urban life, an icon and national treasure who lived for many years in the City of Seattle.

Paving the way for the generations of black artists who would follow, Lawrence was the first African-American artist to be represented by a major commercial gallery in the nation.  Without question, he was the most important artist in the City of Seattle. It was at the Harlem Art Center that I was given materials and instruction in handling the plastic elements of line, texture, color, space, and value.