Grand Performance

Published on the occasion of the 1993 NAACP Image Awards 25th Anniversary Celebration, Lawrence has this to say about the image: We had a very famous theater in Harlem called the Vaudeville House (The Apollo). Every two weeks they would have a stage show and a movie, and it became part of our recreation. We would go there to see the comedians, the chorus lines, the dance, performance. I knew that's what they were thinking of, the people who commissioned (this print), in terms of the performing arts. All of these things come out of my own experience.

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.