The Builders

1974

American, 1917 - 2000

Jacob Lawrence said that his paintings and prints depicting builders came from his “own observations of the human condition,” and they often expand on the idea of the builder to include the family. In this poster design for his 1974 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (which traveled to SAM the following year), a man, his wife, and their two children in their Sunday best stroll past a busy construction site in a direct correlation between building buildings and building community. About this and other builders scenes Lawrence wrote, “I like the symbolism [of the builder]. . . . I think of it as man’s aspiration, as a constructive tool—man building.”

Color silkscreen

37 x 29 x 1 1/2 in. (94 x 73.7 x 3.8cm)

Gift of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence

2006.85

Provenance: Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, Seattle Washington; gift to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2006

Photo: Scott Leen

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Forget Me Not: Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence and Jacob Lawrence, May 5, 2007 - Sept. 9, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller, June 28, 2024 - January 5, 2025.

Published ReferencesNesbett, Peter T. "Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963-2000): A Catalogue Raisonne." Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery Ltd. in association with University of Washington Press (Seattle and London), 2001, p. 28, no. L74-1

Nesbett, Peter T. and Hills, Patricia. "Jacob Lawrence: Thirty Years of Prints (1963-1993): A Catalogue Raisonne." Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery Ltd. in association with University of Washington Press (Seattle and London), 1994, p. 28, no. 74-1

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