Ventriloquist | Harvard Art Museums

Gallery Text

A prodigy of the Harlem Renaissance, an influential cultural movement of the 1920s and ’30s, Lawrence forged a distinctive approach to painting that drew on elements of cubism and modern design to create scenes of everyday life as well as historical narratives. This kaleidoscopic composition depicts the dining room of an elegant mixed-race establishment, with a ventriloquist and a garishly dressed dummy sitting at the center. The work is one of a series of twelve paintings featuring performance-based themes that Lawrence made after an eleven-month hospitalization for psychiatric care. Some scholars have interpreted this painting as an expression of Lawrence’s illness and feelings of isolation. Others have seen it as one of many works in which Lawrence employs the mask motif, prominent in American art and culture in the 1950s, to investigate issues of African American race and identity, as well as the social anxieties fueled by Cold War politics.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2008.103
People: Jacob Lawrence, American (Atlantic City, NJ 1917 - 2000 Seattle, WA)
Title: Ventriloquist
Classification: Paintings
Work Type: painting
Date: 1952
Culture: American
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/326529

Location

Location: Level 1, Room 1330, Modern and Contemporary Art, New Images

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Physical Descriptions

Medium

Egg tempera over graphite underdrawing on gessoed hardboard

Dimensions

50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
framed: 76.5 x 85.4 x 7 cm (30 1/8 x 33 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

Signed: l.r.: Jacob Lawrence 52

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [The Alan Gallery, New York], sold; to Joanne Stern, New York, (c. 1953-2007), sold; [through Christie's, New York]; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2008.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number: Nesbett P52-07

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Daniel A. Pollack, Class of 1960, American Art Acquisition Fund and gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, Class of 1907, by exchange
Accession Year: 2008
Object Number: 2008.103
Division: Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact: am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

Peter T. Nesbett, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings Drawings and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonne (2000), no. P52-07 (ill.), p. 122
Patricia Hills, Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA, 2009), p. 227, fig. 166, ill.

Exhibition History

Performance: A Series of New Paintings in Tempera by Jacob Lawrence, The Downtown Gallery, 01/27/1953 - 02/14/1953
Re-View: S118 European & American Art since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 04/09/2011
Re-View: European and American Art Since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/03/2011 - 06/01/2013
32Q: 1330 Mid-Century Figurative, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/11/2017; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/05/2018 - 08/11/2025
Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, 09/07/2017 - 02/04/2018

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

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2008.103: Ventriloquist