Jacob Lawrence’s “The 1920’s… The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots” will be shown at The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton will celebrate the 250th anniversary of The United States, this year, by looking back at it 200th anniversary, in 1976. The exhibition “Spirit of ’76: The Bicentennial” will open on Feb. 14 and run through February 2027.
“This year the nation is celebrating its 250th anniversary,” said the museum’s curator of cultural history, Nicholas Ciotola, in a press release. “But it’s also the 50-year anniversary of the Bicentennial, a long-overlooked chapter of recent American history that is equally deserving of remembrance. In 1976, not unlike today, Americans were wrestling with issues of belonging, equity and patriotism and channeled their feelings about the country in a variety of different ways — socially, politically, and, most importantly for this exhibit, artistically.”
The exhibition will include artifacts and pieces of art connected to the Bicentennial, including Kent Bicentennial Portfolio lithographs and screen prints by artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Robert Indiana; state government-issued items such as license plates and maps; flags and commemorative medallions; and ceramic works by Trenton porcelain companies Cybis, Boehm, and Lenox. The exhibition will also include a collection of artwork and artifacts connected to George Washington’s crossing of The Delaware River, near Trenton, in late 1776.
The Kent Bicentennial Portfolio project, Lawrence, Indiana and other artists were asked to create artwork in response to the question, “What does independence mean to you?” Lawrence (1917-2000) responded with a depiction of immigrants casting ballots.
“To me, migration means movement,” he once said. “There was conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle came a kind of power and even beauty. ‘And the migrants kept coming’ is a refrain of triumph over adversity. If it rings true for you today, then it must still strike a chord in our American experience.”
For information, visit statemuseum.nj.gov.
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