The University of Chapel Hill’s Ackland Museum is exhibiting The Legend of John Brown, a series of bright silk screen prints inspired by abolitionist John Brown’s bloody 19th-century raid on Harpers Ferry.
Artist Jacob Lawrence first painted the sequence in 1941 using opaque watercolors, and acted as artistic consultant when the prints were silk screened in 1977 due to the fragility of the paintings.
A visual storyteller, Lawrence breaks down the narrative into 22 vibrant prints. He uses sharply rendered forms and solid blocks of color reminiscent of the Kid Pix “fill” tool. That impression, the elemental shapes and a consistent use of unusual forest green, deep maroon and primary yellow give the scenes the continuity of an illustrated storybook. Their matter-of-fact presentation makes the darkness of the events that much more disturbing.
Lawrence begins with an image of Brown beneath a crucifix contemplating his calling: to overthrow slavery in America.
By the sixth silk screen, contemplation transforms into action. In the image, men gather around Brown, recruited to stop the recapture of fugitive slaves. Their heads tilt toward an intense-looking Brown with sharp triangles of gray in his black hair and dark circles drawn for eyes. Brown’s huge hands grip guns so black they look like paper cutouts against his white hands. The three black men around him look much less fanatical, more resigned and suspicious, each depicted with hunched shoulders, frowning faces and a lone side-gazing eye.
Silk screen eight provides a welcome reprieve from the intensity, showing vaguely triangular mountains in the comfortingly familiar green and maroon against a sky comprised of cool blues—an emotional rest stop after which the action begins in earnest.
It is jarring to see a battle portrayed in basic shapes, a body bent backwards and rounded over or pikes, and daggers portrayed as mere yellow spikes. A slave owner, half-seated and surrounded by fallen men, appears to be perpetually dying.
One of the strongest silk screens manages to combine that emotional intensity with the earlier, eerie calm. Using those cool shades of blue, Lawrence details fugitive footprints pressed into snow and the hunched back of an escapee plodding out of the right corner of the frame. His figure is piled with brown and green triangles, laid carefully to look like a heavy load. The only bright color in the image is visible in four reserved dashes of red on the snow, a careful trail of blood and evidence of a wounded comrade.
Each piece of artwork is captioned with a simple one-line explanation of the story as it moves from belief to action to consequence. The artist faithfully records an important moment in history in a simple, memorable way—revealing Lawrence’s celebration of a controversial hero and ensuring that John Brown’s sacrifices remain vivid and unforgettable.
The Legend of John Brown is on display at the Ackland Museum of Art, 101 S. Columbia St., in Chapel Hill through May 9.
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