“In the North they had the freedom to vote.”

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Experiment Station

Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, Panel no. 59: In the North they had the freedom to vote., 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1942 © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series resonates today in many ways, but this Election Day it seems especially fitting to highlight Panel no. 59, whose caption reads: “In the North they had the freedom to vote.” Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Deputy Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, puts it well in her oral history recorded in 2015:

“I think as with a lot of great art [The Migration Series] will always have meaning. It will have meaning because it speaks to the human spirit, to human aspirations, to courage, to fear, to love, to family. But this specifically because people will always be on the move, people will always be looking for something better, and that will mean that his work will never lose its resonance for generations to come.”

See the full video and learn more about all 60 panels of The Migration Series here.

Talking Migration and Identity with Wajahat Ali

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Experiment Station

Wajahat Ali facilitates the first #PhillipsConversation in a monthly series this fall. Photo: Laura Hoffman

Last month, Wajahat Ali visited the Phillips to facilitate the first #PhillipsConversation in a monthly series taking place during the fall of 2016. We came up with the idea for these open conversations in the hopes that they would serve as a platform for audiences to further engage on larger issues represented in People on the Move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. Each talk begins with a “big idea” and follows with questions related to the monthly #PhillipsConversation prompt on the first floor of the museum. Wajahat Ali’s discussion focuses on themes of migration and immigration. See the storify from the Phillips’s live tweets and participants inside and outside of the galleries below, and join us for the next #PhillipsConversation with Porchia Moore on Nov. 10.

Ahlam Shibli’s Panel 61

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Experiment Station

The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

Ahlam Shibli, untitled (Arab al-Sbaih no. 29), Jordan, 2007. Gelatin silver print, 15 x 22 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist © Ahlam Shibli

Ahlam Shibli, untitled (Arab al-Sbaih no. 29), Jordan

The series of 47 photographs constituting Arab al-Sbaih were taken in four different places: the Irbid Refugee Camp, Irbid City, the al-Baqa’a Refugee Camp, and Amman. Three generations of Palestinian refugees have been living there since the 1948 war that followed the declaration of the Israeli State and resulted in the Palestinian Nakba. The title of the series references the original name of the village Arab al-Shibli in the Lower Galilee of Palestine (currently Israel). A part of the villagers who fought for their lands in 1948 against the Jews were expelled to Syria and Jordan; the other part took shelter at the Mount Tabor Monastery. After several months of hiding in caves on the land of the monastery, at the end of the war, the families who managed to return to their homes had to change the original name of the village, Arab al-Sbaih, to Arab al-Shibli in order to protect themselves from Israeli revenge. The refugees in Syria and Jordan on the other hand are preserving the memory of their homeland by naming their shops after places in Palestine and reproducing the social structure of their original villages.