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      Connected | March 2, 2020

      Collector shares paintings and message of Jacob Lawrence

      Susan Flynn

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      Susan Flynn

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      Without the generosity of art collectors Harvey Ross and his late wife, Harvey-Ann, and their conviction that works by Jacob Lawrence tell a story that the world needs to hear, the nationally touring exhibition that reunites the artist’s Struggle series would not have been possible.

      Spend any time reading the labels in the gallery and their names soon become familiar. In fact, the couple own 15 of the 23 panels on view in Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle. Ross, who traveled from New York for the January opening, said the impact of viewing Lawrence’s paintings together as the artist intended was even more powerful than he had anticipated.

      Jacob Lawrence, . . . we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour —4 July 1776, Panel 6, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56.

      "To bring this exhibition on a national tour, where hundreds of thousands of people will be exposed to it directly, and many more through word of mouth and the media, I believe only good things should come from it,” says Harvey. “At their core, museums are educational institutions. They are also a place where people should feel safe to question and challenge in a respectful way, supported by the truth."

      Jacob Lawrence, . . . we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour —4 July 1776, Panel 6, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56. Egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.

      An economics major at Brandeis University who has worked on Wall Street for 50 years, Harvey did not come to this with an art background. He discovered Jacob Lawrence as part of a quest to better understand his own family history. All his life he was told about this “famous artist” in the family. Only later, did he discover that the artist, William Gropper, was not just famous in his family, but was one of the leading radical artists in America in the 1930s and 1940s.

      A brilliant cartoonist, painter and muralist, Gropper was a first cousin of Harvey’s mother. He was also one of two artists called by Sen. Joseph McCarthy to testify before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953. His refusal to “name names” left him blacklisted for eight years.

      William Gropper, 1967. William Gropper papers, 1916–1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

      “He was a man of strong principles who went against the grain and put himself in danger for doing that,” says Harvey. It was through this research into his roots that Ross read about Lawrence, who had become a friend of Gropper’s and his circle of like-minded artists, writers and activists.

      William Gropper, 1967. William Gropper papers, 1916–1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

      In 1995, Harvey and Harvey-Ann went to see Lawrence’s Migration series at The Museum of Modern Art. The 60 paintings chronicle the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the years between the two world wars. They left the museum and walked a few blocks to a gallery holding a companion exhibition with paintings from Lawrence’s series Struggle: From the History of the American People.

      William Gropper, Congressional Declaration, n.d. Ink on paper. From the Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross.

      William Gropper, Congressional Declaration, n.d. Ink on paper. From the Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross.

      “We were immediately moved by what we saw, a more inclusive story about those involved in creating a better society that included women, African Americans, Native Americans and immigrants,” he says. They also learned that some of the paintings were in private hands and thought they might be able to add one to their Gropper collection, which focused on civil rights, the dignity of labor and the immigrant experience in America.

      About five years later, the couple met Elizabeth Hutton Turner, an esteemed Lawrence scholar who is now an art professor at the University of Virginia. “She encouraged us to continue to collect with greater purpose than to have art on our walls for just friends and family to come and see. We began to understand this was part of something bigger,” says Harvey. “This exhibition never would have gotten off the ground without her vision from the start.” Turner is co-curator of the exhibition with Austen Barron Bailly, PEM’s former American art curator.

      Jacob Lawrence, We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country! —petition of many slaves, 1773, Panel 5, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56

      Besides admiration for his profound talent as an artist, Harvey says he also feels a kinship with Lawrence and his worldview. “Some people say one thing and do something different. Based on what I know about Jacob Lawrence, he both talked the talk and walked the walk,” he says.

      Jacob Lawrence, We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country! — petition of many slaves, 1773, Panel 5, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.

      “While he could have been angry, and probably was, about the inequalities in society, he kept that to himself. But he expressed it quite dramatically in his art in a way for all to interpret as they saw fit.”

      Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle opened during a period of growing political divisiveness in the country, as tensions escalate over issues such as immigration, racism, religion and changing demographics. Some have suggested that this exhibition, which explores the cost of democracy, is as timely as ever. Harvey agrees, but suggests that the values central to the story will forever be relevant.

      Art students in Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.


      "It was timely 65 years ago, and it will be timely 65 years from now,” he says. “There will always be challenges in our country, and there will always be the need for discussion, between young and old, and between people of all political persuasions."

      The exhibition is made possible through generous lenders, the dedicated curatorial team, and, as Harvey acknowledged, “hundreds and hundreds of named and unnamed individuals,” who have supported this ambitious project. But none of this likely would have happened if Harvey did not attend a social mixer some 50 years ago in New York where he met a nice woman, also named Harvey. At first, he thought he heard her wrong. Another Harvey? Yes, Harvey-Ann explained, she was named after her grandmother, Chava being the Hebrew name for Eve. He proceeded to ask her out for coffee.

      For Harvey, who lost his wife six years ago, the exhibition is an extension of all that Harvey-Ann stood for in her life.

      Harvey and his wife Harvey-Ann. Photo courtesy of Harvey Ross.

      “I sense her presence here, I really do. She was involved from the beginning,” he says. “My wife was a high school English teacher for 40 years and in many ways, I feel she is reaching out to a new generation of students through this exhibition.”

      Harvey and his wife Harvey-Ann. Photo courtesy of Harvey Ross.

      Like Ross, Lydia Gordon, PEM’s Associate Curator and Exhibition Coordinating Curator, is thrilled to see the reunited series shared with new audiences. She is also grateful to the couple who helped to make it all happen.

      “For more than 60 years, the Struggle series remained understudied because of its dispersal. Together, Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross sought to reunite the lost narrative series so the content of the work would no longer be suppressed, sharing it far and wide with audiences across the country,” says Gordon. “We are forever grateful for their vision and commitment to this project.”

      Art students in Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.


      Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle is the first museum exhibition of the series of paintings Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56) by one of the best known American artists of the 20th century, Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000). Reunited for the first time in more than sixty years, the paintings revive Lawrence's way of reimagining American history as shared history and, as he wrote, “depict the struggles of a people to create a nation and their attempt to build a democracy.” The exhibition is on view at PEM through April 26, 2020. Share your impressions with us on social media using #AmericanStruggle and #peabodyessex.

      NATIONAL TOUR
      Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle

      Peabody Essex Museum
      January 18–April 26, 2020

      The Metropolitan Museum of Art
      June 2–September 7, 2020

      Birmingham Museum of Art
      October 17, 2020–January 10, 2021

      Seattle Art Museum
      February 11–May 23, 2021

      The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
      June 26–September 19, 2021

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