On View
Not on viewObject number2007.6
The Builders (The Family)
Artist
Jacob Lawrence
(American, 1917-2000)
Date1974
Mediumcolor screenprint on wove paper
Dimensionsimage: 30 in. × 22 1/8 in. (76.2 × 56.2 cm)
sheet: 34 × 25 3/4 in. (86.4 × 65.4 cm)
mat: 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
sheet: 34 × 25 3/4 in. (86.4 × 65.4 cm)
mat: 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
Credit LinePermanent Collection Fund
Exhibition History"Embracing Diverse Voices: African-American Art in the Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts," KIA Galleries 3&4 (Oct. 3 - Nov. 29, 2009).
"Embracing Diverse Voices: 80 Years of African-American Art," KIA Traveling Exhibition, Bakersfield Museum of Art (Dec. 13, 2012 – Mar. 10, 2013).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).
"Embracing Diverse Voices: A Century of African-American Art," KIA Traveling Exhibition, North Carolina Central University Art Museum (October 7 - December 12, 2016).
"Resilience: African American Artists as Agents of Change," [Travel Version] at the Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI (June 6, 2021 - August, 15, 2021)Label TextJacob Lawrence’s cunning use of scale and color draws the viewer into this eye-catching scene. The family fills the foreground, and Lawrence frames them between the oblique lines of the red ladder and the wooden planks. The shallow space created by the builders' wall further enhances the family’s importance. The muted background colors focus our eyes on the man's black suit and yellow tie, the red hats of the mother and daughter, and the builders' blue coveralls. The overall tone of the work is positive and hopeful.
Fascinated with tools (he possessed his own fine collection of them), Lawrence saw them as extensions of one's hands and symbols of hope for a better life.
"I like the symbolism [of the builder]," he once said.
"I think of it as man's aspiration, as a constructive tool—man building."
