New Orleans
Silkscreen on paper
Support size: 22 x 20 inches; Image size: 16 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches
2002
Now on view: AC Hotel, Spartanburg, South Carolina
As exhibited in:
Between Form and Content: Perspectives on Jacob Lawrence and Black Mountain College, 2018–2019, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, North Carolina
Elevation from Within: The Study of Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 2019–2024, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2019; Richardson Family Art Museum, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2021; Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, 2022, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida, 2023, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, 2024
Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, Gwendolyn Clarine Knight was seven years old when she moved with family friends to St. Louis, Missouri, following the unexpected death of her father. She spent the majority of her youth, however, in Harlem. An avid reader and dance, theatre, and opera enthusiast, Knight immersed herself in the Harlem Renaissance during her teen years. She briefly attended Howard University in Washington, DC, where she studied with painter Loïs Jones and printmaker James Wells. Financial hardship brought on by the Great Depression compelled Knight to leave college after her second year and return to Harlem. There, she studied painting and sculpture with Augusta Savage and joined the Work Progress Administration’s mural initiative. Savage also introduced the young artist to writers and activists of the Harlem Renaissance, including Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, and Charles Alston. It was in Alston’s studio that Knight met fellow artist Jacob Lawrence, whom she married in 1941.
Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Knight became an itinerant artist of sorts, accompanying her husband as he found new opportunities. Shortly after their wedding, the couple moved to New Orleans for a brief period while Lawrence completed work for a grant. Knight's “time in the South had a strong impact; she loved its sultriness, which reminded her of Barbados.” Her affinity for the city’s vibrant culture is reflected in the saturated color and bold, simplified forms seen in New Orleans.
The summer of 1946 was spent at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina; the 1950s in New York studying dance with members of Martha Graham’s company; and, in 1964, she and Lawrence traveled to Nigeria. This last sojourn undoubtedly appealed to Knight’s curiosity regarding her African roots. Finally, in 1971, Lawrence was offered a teaching position at the University of Washington School of Art, and the couple settled in Seattle.
Other works by this artist