| |||||||||
|
 |
||||||||
 |
| The Materials and Techniques of Jacob Lawrence By Elizabeth Steele |
|
Jacob Lawrence's early training at the Utopia Children's House, the Harlem Art Workshop, and the Works Progress Administration introduced him to the materials that he would use throughout his career. It was in these depression-era centers that he became familiar with tempera paints, various papers, illustration board, and hardboard, and the appearance of his work is strongly influenced by his choice of media. Of great significance is his exclusive use of opaque, water-based paints, which dictates the techniques that he has developed for creating lively compositions from two-dimensional shapes. Of equal importance is his process, which is meticulous and consistent, so consistent, in fact, that the formula he follows for building a composition has changed little from the beginning of his career. Rather than change, his working method has matured over the years. This study seeks to document Lawrence's approach to his materials and techniques over a sixty-year period. Lawrence is among the masters of tempera in the twentieth century, yet the identity of this medium with regards to his paintings and those of other contemporary artists has caused much confusion. Tempera comes from the Latin word tem-perare, meaning "to mix" or "to regulate." The classic recipe as recorded by Cennino Cennini in Il libro dell'arte in the late fourteenth century calls for emulsifying egg yolk with water and is considered by purists to be the only true definition of tempera. (1) However, in the first half of the twentieth century, many new water-based paints were developed to meet a demand from the growing advertising industry for fast-drying, opaque, matte paints. They were marketed by names such as showcard colors, poster colors, school colors, and mat [sic] watercolors in addition to the term tempera. Recipes changed in response to availability and cost for raw materials. (2) However, they were all classified by the paint manufacturers as "tempera," and it is from here that the confusion stems. While a shared characteristic was the ability to be thinned with water, the binding media may have included mixtures of gum and glue, starch and glue, glue and egg, egg and oil, egg, resin and oil, and so forth. Adding to this mélange, casein tempera was first introduced as a commercially prepared artist's paint after World War II, a medium known to the ancient world but in modern days associated primarily with house paint. (3) Max Doerner, the author of the popular handbook The Materials of the Artist, published in 1934, defines tempera paint as an emulsion. In his chapter on tempera painting he includes no fewer than eight tempera media: egg tempera, egg white tempera, casein tempera, gum tempera, animal glue tempera, vegetable glue tempera, soap tempera, and wax emulsion tempera.(4) Interestingly, the medieval recipe for tempera using egg yolk alone as the binder is mentioned only as historical interest. Ralph Mayer, the author of another well-read manual published in 1940, The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, describes tempera as follows: "In the modern usage of the term… a medium that may be freely diluted with water but which upon drying becomes sufficiently insoluble to allow overpainting with more tempera or with oil and varnish mediums."(5) He goes on to give instructions for making eight tempera paints including the egg-yolk-and-water recipe, three egg-and-oil recipes, a gum tempera, a wax-emulsion tempera, an oil tempera, and a casein tempera. From the above, it becomes evident that in the twentieth century the definition of tempera must take on a broader scope than a medium containing egg yolk alone as the binder. To better understand the aqueous media available to Lawrence, scientific analysis of paint samples taken from a representative group of his works was conducted for this study. A summary of this analysis identifying the components of the media that he used can be found in the appendix at the end of this essay. To understand Lawrence's painting method, one must first look at the underlying structure of his compositions. An un-finished work from 1977 sheds light on his technique. Lawrence began every painting with a well-developed underdrawing. With the exception of the series works and mural commissions, he does not make preparatory studies but rather conducts all editing and revisions in the drawing, which can be seen here. It is initially laid in with a tentative, light graphite sketch, as found, for example, in the figures seen through the window in the upper right. Lawrence then reworks the initial sketch, erasing some lines and reinforcing others with heavier, more emphatic marks on the paper until he arrives at his final composition. Such revisions in the drawing stage are apparent in the tools on the shelf. As a consequence, there are rarely large changes in his compositions once Lawrence begins to -apply paint. Because commercially produced temperas were made for illustrators and sign painters, manufacturers called them show-card colors or poster paints. They were sold in small jars that often bore several names and uses on the same label, such as the Rich Art No. 24 Poster Black, called a "moist water color" for "tempera, poster, airbrush." Commercial artists demanded a fast-drying paint that was matte and opaque. They needed to be able to produce graphic works in a short amount of time and in a flat color that could be photographed for reproduction, qualities provided by tempera's body and covering power. They were applied in thin layers, two or three at the most, to achieve an opaque color. The materials of the graphic artist suited Lawrence's painting process. He recalls that he was attracted by the low cost of poster paints and bought them at five-and-dime stores. More important, however, he was attracted to the tempera medium because, in his words, "I'm not the kind of person to drag things out. I work direct. So that's the reason, a simple reason, it's fast, it's just that, easy to use, for me."(6) Such a fast-drying medium does not allow modeling of forms to indicate volume and space or impastoed surfaces, and none are seen in Beggar No. 1 of 1938 (7), among the early works by Lawrence to be executed in commercially prepared tempera. Instead, the sharply skewed perspective of the red brick building is employed to promote a sense of three-dimensionality. Movement is suggested by the distorted angles in the figures' stances. Despite the limitations of a fast-drying medium, which once applied does not permit much manipulation, Lawrence is able to vividly capture the essence of the scene. His strong and expressive drawing ability allows the artist to distill the activity of the street and the dependence of the beggar leaning on his escort into flat, two-dimensional shapes rendered in opaque, matte colors. The density of the paint and the way in which overlapping brushstrokes pool on the surface in a lighter tone distinguish the appearance of his tempera medium during the late 1930s and early 1940s. These inexpensive paints usually contained fillers that contributed to their opacity and matteness to the extent of seeming chalky. Analysis of the red paint used for the brickwork of the building in Beggar No. 1 indicates that it is composed of a single pigment, iron oxide red, and a transparent mineral filler. The binding medium has been identified as a mixture of gum and glue.(8) The bold, bright hues present in this painting suggest that Lawrence used the paints unmixed, straight from the jar throughout the picture. The colors in Beggar No. 1 are remarkably close to handpainted swatches of contemporary showcard colors from the F. Weber Co., a further indication that he rarely mixed the commercially prepared colors. Lawrence recalls that he had to stir the paints before using them. Indeed, the directions given on the jar label read, "Stir well. Ready for use with the Brush,"(9) because without the dispersants that would be added to later tempera paint recipes, the binder and pigment settled at the bottom of the jar. The lack of visible brushstrokes throughout most of the picture is striking in the extremely flat shapes, a consequence of the density of the paint as employed straight from the jar. This appearance conforms to the paint company's promise. Showcard colors were advertised as "ready for use and are free flowing, leaving no brushstrokes, drying with a brilliant satiny mat finish; being opaque, they can be successfully applied one over the other, without disturbing the underlying color, similar to Tempera."(10) Because of the artist's limited means, his early paintings were typically on very inexpensive, poor-quality papers. It is not uncommon to find brown wrapping or Kraft paper as the support for works at the beginning of his career. At the time that he painted Beggar No. 1 on illustration board (11), Lawrence was receiving higher-quality materials from the WPA.(12) However, a sense that the artist was still very concerned about the cost of his materials is apparent in their small size. This work measures only 20 by 15 inches, coincidentally the same size as Subway from the same year. A manufacturer's printed label, cut in half, is found on the reverse of each of these works. When put together, like two pieces of a puzzle, the identity of the supplier becomes apparent. Lawrence used Yankee Board, manufactured by Friedrich Co. of New York. The identical dimensions of Beggar No. 1 and Subway may indicate that the supports were cut from the same piece of illustration board. It is probable that by dividing a single board in half to produce two paintings, Lawrence was able to stretch his limited supplies. The artist has commented that the small size of his works is attributable to reasons of "economics."(13) Lawrence completed the Toussaint L'Ouverture series in 1938. From 1938 through 1941 he completed three more series: The Life of Frederick Douglass, The Life of Harriet Tubman, and The Migration of the Negro.(14) For these ambitious works, he adopted hardboard panels(15) and casein tempera paints. Together with his soon-to-be wife, Gwendolyn Knight, he prepared the hardboards with a traditional ground layer made of rabbit-skin glue and whiting. While using a conventional recipe for the preparation layer, the resulting surface is not the traditional smooth ground surface that is indicated in artists' manuals. On the contrary, it is pitted and full of tiny air bubbles. The tiny white dots that appear in the paint film, particularly noticeable in dark passages, visually unite these works. While it was not an intentional device of the artist, it provided a surface with texture that Lawrence exploited. Lawrence arrived at a convincing depiction of the parched fields in the South on panel No. 13 of The Migration of the Negro series by using a dry-brush technique that picks up the microscopic-sized voids in the unusual preparation layer. The barely wetted brush skips across the irregular surface and the air bubbles in the ground help to describe the disused and arid soil. The series were conceived as single works, not as individual paintings. In discussing The Migration of the Negro series, Lawrence explained that he worked on all of the paintings at the same time, "to hold it together, to unify it, because if I did one panel and completed it, the next panel would probably be different, you see." (16) It was also important to keep his colors uniform within the series. To this end, he bought dry pigments from the well-known supplier Fedanzie and Sperrle, located at 103 Lafayette Street in lower Manhattan and made his own casein tempera. He used the pigments unmixed so that the colors would not vary from one panel to the next, only adding white to obtain lighter shades of a hue. The strength and vibrancy in his palette can be attributed to the use of pure, unmixed colors. With all the prepared panels laid out, he systematically applied one color to each. He began with black and then moved on to the lighter values, applying each color in succession to every picture. Lawrence's homemade casein tempera resulted in a dry, matte surface that can be differentiated by its relative transparency and lack of body from the poster paint tempera used earlier. In the 1940s Lawrence shifted from working in tempera media to gouache. (17) Gouache is defined as "opaque color and/or color mixed with white." Its principal ingredients are gums mixed with plasticizers and wetting agents plus pigment. (18) However, there are numerous works from the early 1940s in which both tempera and gouache seem to be present. One example is Trees (fig. 118) from 1942, painted during Lawrence's stay in Lenexa, Virginia. While the blue used in the sky and the browns used in the tree trunks have the appearance of a relatively transparent gouache medium, the greens, earth reds, dark browns, and blacks used elsewhere have more body and density, suggesting a tempera medium. An in-depth examination of There Are Many Churches in Harlem The People Are Very Religious has revealed some paints that are completely water soluble and others that are completely water insoluble on the same work; additionally, some colors are glossy while others are matte. This strongly suggests that more than one medium was used on this work.(19) Given Lawrence's limited means, it is entirely probable that works from this time fall into a transitional period when he was using up his supply of tempera while adopting gouache as a new aqueous paint. To Lawrence, the most important characteristic was that his paints be water-based, which allowed him to work in his fast, direct manner. Tempera, casein, gouache, and watercolor can be easily mistaken for one another, and as a consequence many of Lawrence's works throughout his career have incorrect media attributions. While gouache is less opaque than tempera or casein, it is more opaque than watercolor. It has less body than tempera but more body than watercolor. When any of these media are thinned to a wash consistency, it is difficult to differentiate them from transparent watercolor. Gouache, while generally matte, can be shiny in some colors as compared with poster paint temperas or casein, which are matte to the extent of appearing dry. Whether watercolor or thinned gouache is present in some works can never be fully resolved, but it is suspected that Lawrence generally used the latter since it is clear that he preferred opacity in his colors. Nonetheless, the important issue to understand about his use of aqueous media is that he did not build up forms with layers of transparent wash, as would a traditional watercolor painter, but instead juxtaposed flat colored shapes against one another. An infrared reflectogram of This Is Harlem reveals that the strength of his composition is derived from the exceptionally complete graphite drawing that lies below this work. Every detail of the composition can be found in the underdrawing. The lines are initially light and loosely formed. As the forms evolve, he goes over these lines with a heavier, darkly drawn mark. Squiggly pencil lines can be seen in the infrared reflectogram that are presumably a notation for color or tone, made in the process of working out the composition. In this work, the underdrawing serves as a dark outline for many shapes and, in some instances, Lawrence reinforced the underdrawing with graphite on top of the paint. By reworking his underdrawing many times, he refined the image to a level of completion so that when he proceeded to the next stage, that of applying color, there are few changes from the underdrawing. Next, Lawrence meticulously painted in and around the shapes of the underdrawing. He used the paint both diluted with water in some places, so that the paint is mottled and transparent in some passages, and directly from the tube in others, rendering the color opaque and flat. This Is Harlem has been traditionally called a gouache on paper, but much of the palette is identical to that in There Are Many Churches in Harlem… so that a mixed aqueous media palette is more likely. (20) This Is Harlem is a significant work because it captures the excitement Law-rence found in his community, in the activity on the streets and in the commerce of urban life. He has frequently acknowledged the tremendous impact that the vitality of Harlem had on him at an early age. (21) Repetition of the building facades, the windows, and the fire escapes epitomizes his love of the visual rhythms that he found in the big city. The alternating heights, colors, and widths of the apartment buildings move the eye around the picture plane in addition to creating the illusion of distance from the two-dimensional, flatly painted rectangles. Recurring pictorial motifs such as the windows can be found throughout his paintings. They are reduced to an abstract pattern in panel No. 31 of The Migration of the Negro series and are seen through the attic window of his Seattle house in the 1977 work The Studio. (22) When questioned about the anachronism of placing a New York vista in a Seattle suburb, he replied that he just "liked the pattern and the design" in these shapes. His predilection for certain shapes and patterns explains why so much repeated imagery from his youthful urban environment is found in his works. (23) Acute observation of his surroundings from his early, formative years is translated into the keen sense for composition that makes his images successful. In the late 1940s Lawrence tried a different water-based paint, egg tempera. Many artists of the period championed a revival of this Renaissance medium, including Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn, Isabel Bishop, Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Cadmus, and Andrew Wyeth. The Checker Players is an egg tempera on hardboard panel from this period. (24) The support is commercially prepared with a ground layer on both sides. This may be the "gesso board" manufactured by Leonard Bocour, which was advertised as primed on both sides for use. (25) Bocour was very popular among artists for the special attention that he took to develop products to meet their needs, the gesso panel being a case in point. Lawrence remembers attending New Year's Eve parties at Bocour's apartment and the latter's encouraging him "to try my new gesso panels." (26) When Lawrence was buying the panels at art supply stores, in the late 1940s, he also seems to have been making his own paint. Analysis of the paint medium used on The Checker Players reveals it to be composed of pure egg. (27) Lawrence does not remember where he got his recipe, but thinks it was probably from a friend. It called for equal parts of egg yolk and water, to which he added a few drops of formal-dehyde as a preservative; to further the shelf life, he kept the prepared emulsion in jars in the refrigerator. (28) The different handling qualities of egg tempera led Lawrence to alter his technique, which is apparent in this work. He acknowledges that he used egg tempera differently from other media, calling it "a glazing medium." (29) The paint was applied more thinly, and the readily visible brushstrokes play a textural role in depicting elements of the composition, such as the paneled wood wall below the chalkboard. Working within distinct passages, he used several thin coats of the same color to articulate the arch of an upraised arm or the slanted shift of a shoulder and to suggest folds and shadows in the men's clothing. In a departure from flat shapes, he thus begins to model the form. However, the modeling is only suggestive and not literal. Albeit an unintentional consequence, it is here that some of the most beautiful abstract painting evolves within the forms of his representational images, such as in the shirt back of the man writing on the chalkboard and in the overalls of the standing figure with crossed arms. Reflecting on these shapes and brushwork, Lawrence says that this method of working was unself-conscious but that it made the painting process more interesting for him. (30) Another technique he developed was to paint around details in the underdrawing, leaving the ground layer unpainted. In The Checker Players, the facial features and the spaces between the fingers are created in this manner. He painstakingly brushed the brown paint up to and just over the edges of the underdrawing, leaving a thin line in reserve to depict the eyes and other fine details. In this work, he then painted a transparent yellow over the reserved space. The artist refers to this method as "painting on either side of the line." He used this technique throughout the rest of his career and it became a hallmark of his style. Lawrence was enthusiastic about the unique character that these unpainted thin spaces had on his depictions of figures and objects. He liked "the feeling, the effect, [to] remain open to the possibilities of freedom of these lines." (31) The eleven months that Lawrence spent at Hillside Hos-pital in 1949‚50 mark a distinct period in his output and a departure into a new, commercially prepared medium, casein tempera (32). Sedation (33) is one of eleven paintings on paper from this period. The works from his eleven months of psychological counseling are the least flat, most three-dimensional of all his paintings. The perspective is not distorted, and volume in the figures is indicated. Hair, facial features, and hands are realistically delineated using a painted contour line not seen in earlier works. His love of abstract design is apparent in the meticulously observed patterns on the pajamas, the white cloth, and the rear wall, all faithfully reflecting popular design of the early 1950s. The paint is thinly applied, having been diluted with water, but the colors still appear to be unmixed from the tube. It is initially brushed onto the paper in washes, and, in a process similar to that used on The Checker Players, the forms are built up in less dilute, more opaque layers. His paintings from this time all have a remarkably similar palette. The somewhat muted hues of Sedation closely resemble the handpainted swatches on the Bocour Casein Colors brochure. Tube casein tempera produces the driest surface appearance of all the matte, opaque media that he employed. Analysis indicates that it is composed of casein with traces of sugar and glue. (34)Ã Lawrence was enthusiastic about Bocour's paints, recalling that he was "the only one who sold casein at that time." (35) Bocour seems to have returned the enthusiasm, for Lawrence was among the artists with whom Bocour would trade materials for paintings. Two of his paintings found their way into the collection of Leonard Bocour, and in a brochure advertising Hand Ground Bocour Colors, Lawrence is listed among the artists who use his paints. (36) The intricacy of the composition of Vaudeville clearly required much planning. The amount of de-tail in the underdrawing that is revealed in the infrared reflec-togram is representative of his meticulous working process. Every line of the complex, geometric background, which, according to Lawrence, was inspired by the curtain at the Apollo Theater, was painstakingly drawn onto the ground layer. Nearly all the elements of the composition are found in the underdrawing. Evidence that Lawrence reworked the composition in the drawing phase is apparent from the visibly erased lines depicting rings on the upraised, white-gloved hand and in the white collar of the figure's shirt. However, in a daring departure for Lawrence, the abstract pattern of the green suit appears to have evolved in the painting process. Although the framework for the suit was established in the underdrawing with straight lines, the elaborate abstract design came during the application of color. Slight modification from the underdrawing to the painted image can also be found in the buttonholes of the suit and the laces of both figures' shoes. More revisions by the artist can be found in the cane. The white lines are scratched out of the black and yellow paint, revealing the white ground layer, a technique frequently used by the artist when he edited after the paint was applied. Whites found elsewhere—in the gloves, shirt cuff, geometric shapes, and in the thin lines used to depict the noses, mouths, and chins—are also the unpainted preparation layer, a reserve technique that was standard for Lawrence by the 1950s. Since there is no white in the transparent watercolor palette, watercolorists since the beginning of the nineteenth century had evolved the method of leaving the paper unpainted to indicate this color.37 However, Lawrence put a new twist on this technique. He used it to establish contours and fine details, painting around the lines of his extremely well developed underdrawings. Analysis of the medium in Vaudeville has indicated that it is a commercially prepared egg tempera that incorporates oils and plasticizers into the paint formulation. (38) An efflor-escence that is frequently found on the surface of Lawrence's pictures may be a characteristic that allows us to distinguish egg temperas from other tempera paints available at the time. Efflor-escence was present on the dark blue suit of the figure in Vaudeville (it has since been removed in a conservation treatment). Generally associated with blacks, browns, and other dark hues, a white crystalline substance has been noted on the surface of many works examined for this study. A sample of this white crystalline exudate was taken from Magic Man (1958) for analysis. It was identified to be a free fatty acid deposit, an aging phenomenon that is associated with egg media (39). An unusual aspect of Vaudeville is its wax coating. (40) Although Lawrence typically did not varnish his paintings, he occasionally was convinced to apply a surface coating to "preserve" the picture. Bocour recommended wax dissolved in turpentine in a "helpful hints" brochure that he distributed on casein painting, and commercially prepared wax varnishes were also available that Lawrence may have used. (41) An acrylic surface coating was identified on Daybreak—A Time to Rest (1967). (42) Lawrence acknowledged putting a varnish on this painting in an attempt to prevent the flaking paint that many works from the early 1960s were exhibiting. (43) He remembers using a commercially prepared Liquitex varnish for a brief time, but he did not like the glossy appearance it gave to the paints, preferring a matte surface. (44) By midcareer, the artist was buying all of his materials from shops in and around Union Square in New York City, where most art suppliers were located to serve the downtown art community. The store that he patronized most frequently was Joseph Torch, at 29 West 15th Street. It was from such vendors that he bought his commercially prepared hardboards. One such gesso panel (as they were called) that Lawrence used often was made by the New York manufacturer Anjac. It was advertised as being excellent for "all temperas, oils and mixed media. Brilliant white coating is washable and permanent. Will NOT rub, crack, peel or change color. Surface has controlled absorbency for direct paint application. SIZING with shellac or varnish is UNNECESSARY." The binder used in the preparation layers of several hardboards was identified to be casein, an innovation by manufacturers at the time in a departure from the more traditional animal glues. (45) From the 1950s through the 1970s, Lawrence seems to have bought different types of water-based paints. Many medium lines from exhibition and sales receipts during this time state simply "tempera" while others have been mistakenly identified as gouache. (46) Given the marketing of aqueous media paints, it is little wonder that confusion as to their exact composition has arisen. In Bocour's brochure on casein painting, he misleadingly promotes the medium "as a watercolor, gouache (opaque watercolor) for commercial design,… designer's color, and… tempera." (47) Likewise, in a booklet published in 1958, Permanent Pigments describes casein as "a true tempera and is a form of gouache or opaque water color." (48) Art supply catalogues from the 1920s through the 1960s advertised tube paints that were simply marked "tempera" in addition to tubes marked "egg tempera." It is also probable that Lawrence continued to buy tempera (poster) paints in jars. The analysis of his paints has confirmed the presence of numerous binders and mixtures of binding media: gum; glue; egg; casein; gum and glue; egg and oil; egg, oil and rosin; and casein and glue. (49) In 1999 Lawrence's paint box contained primarily gouache, the medium correctly associated with his late works. However, one tube of Rowney Egg Tempera and one tube of Shiva Casein Tempera were found among the other paints. The two odd tubes were much older than the tubes of gouache, and Lawrence thought that he had not used them "in years," (50) It seems entirely probable that at many points in Lawrence's career, he simply had an aqueous media palette, not distinguishing between media but rather buying paints based on their colors. A midcareer work on paper where mixed media may be present is Street to Mbari. (51) As with so many pictures dating from the 1960s onward, the medium has been identified as gouache. While the paint may be characterized as matte and opaque overall, a close inspection reveals a relative increase in the density and body of most colors as compared with those qualities in gouache. There is a dry quality to the surface, which easily registers scuff marks and suggests a binder other than gum. Samples of the blue and the ocher paint were taken from the upper edge of the picture, in which glue was identified as the principal binder, indicating a tempera medium. (52) However, other more transparent colors do exist in this work, such as the lighter blues in the bundles carried on the women's heads. These passages may be gouache or may simply be tempera paint thinned to the consistency of a wash so that they are visually indistinguishable from a gum arabic paint. Thirty years into his career, Lawrence's mature working method was firmly developed, and all the hallmarks of the process and technique are present in Street to Mbari. This complex scene required an underdrawing that is worked out to the smallest detail. Evidence of reworking the underdrawing to capture the bustling spirit of the market is found in the erased graphite lines on the unpainted white paper that is held in reserve to depict the white tunic of the man with upraised arms on the left. The thin lines that give character to the eyes, ears, nostrils, eyebrows, fingernails, and toenails are also white paper left unpainted. He used this technique of painting around his under-drawing to denote the sinuous contours of arms, legs, muscles, collarbones, and shoulder blades. As seen earlier in The Checker Players, the paint was brushed initially as a thin wash within a given passage, and the painted composition evolved with more opaque applications of the same hue. The compositional architecture of Street to Mbari shares many characteristics with This Is Harlem. The energy and movement of this cacophonous scene are emphasized by the seemingly endless repetition of colors and shapes. The distorted perspective draws the viewer into the picture, where there is so much activity that the eye is prohibited from resting on a single point. Beginning in the early 1970s, Lawrence's compositions became less detailed and more streamlined. His ability to capture the essence of a story, however, remained as strong as ever. Munich Olympic Games (a study for a poster, 1971) is a superb example of Lawrence's distilling the impact of a moment into its most basic elements. The long strides of the figures and the distance involved in the track are expressed by the extreme foreshortening of the runners as they round the bend. The contorted facial features and strained necks convincingly convey the last bit of effort that the participants are putting into the race. Lawrence's many years of honing his draftsmanship enabled him to depict concisely the momentousness of reaching the finish line. Interestingly, the white finish line is not white paper left in reserve or white paint applied to the surface but is scraped into the paint surface. By scraping into his painted surface, Lawrence achieved a hard edge, which may be intentional, to give this important element of the composition its strength, or it may be an indication that the finish line was an afterthought, a forgotten detail that he realized was necessary. Only five colors are used, green, red, brown, purple, and yellow, plus black, white, and gray, all undoubtedly straight from a tube or bottle judging from the intensity and purity of the hues. While the medium of this work has been recorded as gouache, the opacity and chalkiness of some colors, especially the green, would indicate a mixed-medium palette with temperas used for some passages and gouache used for others. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lawrence spent much of his time executing commissions. The studies for Howard University's murals, Explorations (1980) and Origins (1984), mark a return to the flat shapes that characterize his very early work. (53) The lack of modulation in most colors with little attempt to indicate volume is presumably in response to his anticipation that the studies would be transformed into the two-dimensional baked enamel medium that was envisioned for the murals. However, it also represents the continued simplification of his compositions characteristic of his later work. The medium has the appearance of gouache, the paint that is generally associated with his late work. Much of the freehand graphite underdrawing is visible through many of the more transparent passages, and roughened paper fibers where the artist vigorously erased lines are evidence of much editing. In other places, it is clear that he has become less strict about adhering to his underdrawing from the many shapes that were conceived in the underdrawing but that were then painted over. Although Lawrence was becoming freer in his painting process, this does not mean that he abandoned meticulous planning of the work. In the unpainted border of Explorations, the colors to be used were indicated in the artist's handwriting: "raw umber, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt umber, grey no. 1, grey no. 2, cobalt blue, black, white." A further loosening-up in his painting process is noted in his late work Supermarket—All Hallow's Eve. This mysterious and whimsical work is a gouache on paper. While the graphite underdrawing is still apparent in the more transparent passages, the irregularity of the forms suggests that he allowed the paint to flow onto the paper with less regard than previously to following a highly developed structure. This is particularly successful in the redheaded figure on the right dressed in a skeleton's costume. In the lower portion of the gray costume, an anomalous skip in the application of paint, revealing initial applications of wash, is allowed to remain visible. There is no distinction between the contour of the mask of the central figure and the background, both painted in the same yellow ocher hue. In earlier paintings, a different color or a painted line would distinguish one shape from another. Here, however, eyes and other facial features are barely perceptible in the masks since these elements are depicted with the same hue. He continued to employ the reserve technique for the whites, a method that gives the thin white lines an appealing irregularity. While Law-rence remains a representational painter in his late years, a stronger feeling for the abstract emerges within his compositions as shapes melt together and lose their recognizable identity. This foray into abstraction is apparent in the skull shapes, in the bat image in the upper right, and in much of the background of Supermarket—All Hallow's Eve. While Lawrence cannot be called a self-taught artist, neither is he an academic painter. If many other artists, from Giotto to Orozco, influenced him, his style is derivative of none. Throughout his career, he never strayed from the materials that first sparked his interest and ability to paint: water-based paints, paper, hardboard. His underdrawings remain critical to his process. When asked why he never ventured into other media, he laughed and responded that he was "a creature of habit." (54) Yet within these limited parameters, he developed a style that is unique and innovative. Working within an economy of means, his paintings are forceful, expressive, and to the point. |