Grade 5 2015 - Our Migration Series

Grade 5 Visual Arts: Our Migration Series  

Migration affects communities socially, culturally and economically.

We used the ‘Think Puzzle Explore’ visible thinking routine to view the artwork of an American artist working in the mid to late twentieth century, Jacob Lawrence.  We looked at a few of the panels from his Migration Series and we discussed the images; then recorded our thoughts and questions.  We read some of Mike Vinezia’s book about the artist and decided that we could find out more by looking at all the panels. 

Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series, a sequence of 60 paintings, shows the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between World War I and World War II.  It tells the story of thousands of African-American families who left their homes in the southern United States and traveled North to cities like Chicago and New York. Although slavery had ended years before, many black people were still treated badly in the South.  Black families travelled North to look for jobs and a better life.  In The Migration Series Lawrence showed how families lived in the South before moving North.  He told the story of their journey, and what happened when they arrived in the North.

The Black Migration was the largest group of people ever to move from one part of the US to another.  Jacob Lawrence was one of the few people who recorded it.

Lawrence spent months preparing 60 boards with the help of his wife, artist Gwendolyn Knight. Because he wanted each painting to have a similar look and to keep the colors consistent, Lawrence painted all 60 pictures at the same time.  He planned all 60 paintings at once and applied one hue at a time to every painting where it was to appear.  Lawrence was the first black artist represented by a New York gallery.

Lawrence made use of repeated motifs to show unity in The Migration Series, and also linear uprights.  These vertical lines alternate with the flat planes of open skies or high walls to create a rhythm of escapes and enclosures.  Descriptive captions under each image enhance a sense of unity. The series begins with these words: ‘During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.’ It ends: ‘And the migrants kept coming.’

The students looked at all 60 images and matched some of the captions with the images.

We discussed Jacob Lawrence’s style and the common features of his work such as his use of dark colours, use of vertical lines to show e.g. prison bars, flames, raised arms, chimneys with smoke.  Lawrence created stories using flat, simple shapes and colours.

The students worked in small groups to make a series containing at least four panels to show a historical event involving migration, with each student responsible for a different panel or panels.  They needed to plan in detail first and to paint fairly quickly, using watercolour and one colour at a time.

Learning outcomes:

I can respond to art by creating art and explain the connection.

I have developed my skill in applying the elements and principles of art.

I can describe how people use artwork as a response to a situation & investigate the purposes of objects & images.

I can use preliminary drawings to develop personal interests, using my sketchbook effectively as a planning tool.

I can produce a 2-D work of art that communicates ideas for specific purposes.

Transdisciplinary skills we used were:

Thinking skills – Application Making use of previously acquired knowledge (what we learnt about Jacob Lawrence’s work) in new ways

Social skills – Group decision-making Listening to others; discussing ideas; asking questions; agreeing

Communication skills – Presenting Constructing visuals for a range of purposes and audiences; communicating ideas through visual media

Self- management skills – Spatial awareness Thinking about the position of objects in relation to each other

 Alfi & Sara

 

Alta & Jenny

 Arielle, Ricca, Sharon

 charlote, jaquline, cella

 gabriel and max

 arvin, justin and austin