Migration panel 30. In every home people who had not gone North met and tried to decide if they should go North or not.

Lawrence pays tribute to the Harlem theaters frequented during the Depression years by setting the scene of a spare room like that of a proscenium stage. The figures around the dinner table are balanced by the potted plant in the foreground of the painting in a manner that actors and props would be staged. Similarly, the stage-like air of the scene allows for the viewer of the panel to interpret the dialogue more clearly; specifically, the indecisiveness that the figures face. A single, empty plate evoking poverty is placed on the table, with a woman standing and pouring liquid into a cup. The question in the air stands – do they, as a family, leave and go North, or not?
SKU: 65203
Creator: Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1940-41
Original Medium: Tempera on gesso on composition board
Original Size: 12 x 18 in
Location: Museum of Modern Art, NY
© 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York