Creative Therapy

1949

Creative Therapy, 1949. Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917–2000). Casein over graphite; sheet: 56 x 76.4 cm (22 1/16 x 30 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund 1994.2 © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Jacob Lawrence established an important and successful career early on, working with a prestigious New York gallery and becoming the first African American artist to be represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He encountered anxiety and self-doubt, however, leading him to undertake a voluntary stay at Hillside Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Queens from 1949 through 1950. While there, he produced a series of drawings, to which this sheet belongs, depicting his experiences. In the present work, patients paint together, guided by a physician who saw art as a means of therapy. Lawrence experimented with geometric forms, flattened planes, and slanting recession of space to shift the image's perspective and place the viewer within the scene. Jacob Lawrence included a self portrait in this work, at left, showing himself so closely focused on his canvas that it obscures his face.