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As the first African-American to break the color barrier in the Modern Art World, Jacob Lawrence’s most important work makes the concepts of suffering, growth and rebellion tangible for all those who see it.

And through Sept. 18, students can see prints of three of Lawrence’s series’ in the University’s Willard Wankelman Gallery in the Fine Arts Center.

The series’ titled ‘Genesis,’ ‘Hiroshima,’ and ‘Toussaint L’Ouverture’ include 31 color prints and 13 text pages.

Leslie King-Hammond, an art historian from the Maryland Institute College of Art, will be presenting a slide-lecture, titled ‘Jacob Lawrence and the School of Modernism,’ today at 7 p.m. in 204 Fine Arts Center.

She is the dean of Graduate Studies at the MICA.

Mike Arrigo, chairman of the Fine Arts’ Advisory Board that approved the Jacob Lawrence exhibition, said Lawrence’s work was chosen because ‘[he] deals with human issues.’

Lawrence’s art was made for the general public, and usually had a ‘specific regional flavor to it,’ Arrigo said.

After seeing Lawrence’s work advertised in a traveling exhibition, Jacqueline Nathan, exhibition program administrator at the Fine Arts Center, thought it would be a ‘wonderful show to bring to Bowling Green.’

‘[His work is composed of] abstract patterns with meaningful, social subject matter,’ Nathan said. ‘His use of color and shape is very dramatic, and helps to highlight the drama of the topics that he chooses.’

Scott Bolyard, a junior focusing on graphic design, appreciated Lawrence’s use of color as well.

‘All the prints have the same color scheme,’ Bolyard said. ‘There is a very implied quality.’

According to Arrigo, Lawrence responded to history by selecting themes that were close to his heart, such as the struggle to set up the first African community in Haiti that appears in ‘Toussaint L’Ouverture.’

‘Toussaint L’Ouverture’ is based on the historical figure Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was a leader in the Haitian revolution in the late 1700s.

Moderate revolutionaries took away the ‘Rights of Man’ that had been given to the slaves, and mass revolts ensued.

Toussaint Breda was the leader of this slave rebellion. He became known as Toussaint L’Ouverture which means ‘one who finds an opening.’

The Jacobins, the most radical of the French revolutionary groups, voted to end slavery in the French colonies, including Haiti.

While serving in the French Army as a General, L’Ouverture was imprisoned by his leader Napoleon after having been promised a nice retirement.

Nathan hopes that students will be moved by the power of L’Ouverture’s images and use of vibrant color.

His depiction of suffering in the ‘Hiroshima’ series where skeletons are shown doing every day things ‘is heartrending,’ Nathan said.

The ‘Hiroshima’ series is composed of eight scenes: a marketplace, a playground, a street scene, a park, farmers, a family scene, a man with birds, and a boy with a kite.

Skeletons are the common theme throughout, serving as characters in the series that make the death and destruction of ‘Hiroshima’ blatantly clear.

L’Ouverture’s ‘Genesis’ series is composed of eight prints that appear with text from the King James version of the book of Genesis.

Lawrence spent his teenage years in Harlem during the Great Depression.

There he honed his art skills in after-school classes, but was forced to drop out when his mother lost her job.

He also took classes sponsored by the College Art Association and other groups at the Harlem Community Art Center.

Lawrence was the first African-American to be included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1941.

He also served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.

After World War II, Lawrence taught at many schools and universities in New York City until 1971, when he accepted a full-time faculty position at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He retired in 1983 as a professor emeritus and died in 2000, at the age of 83.

In addition to the three series on campus, he has also painted Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown, and another series, titled ‘The Mitigation of the Negro.’

Lawrence’s exhibition can be viewed at the Willard Wankelman Gallery between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.