Comparing Color And Light In Jacob Lawrence's The Schomburg Library

The ability of a 2-dimensional piece of art to use the properties of color and light to manipulate our brain into “seeing” a certain narrative is nothing short of phenomenal. One can further explore this concept through two different yet simultaneously similar works of art made centuries apart. The first work being explored is Jacob Lawrence’s The Schomburg Library (1987) (Figure 1.), and it will be compared to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s Judith and Holofernes (1599) (Figure 2). When one first looks at a work of art, the brain is already working to process the visual stimulus in a matter of milliseconds, which is then rationalized consciously. The judgments we can make on the works can thus be influenced by own past experiences and

The clear-cut bookshelves, combined with the loose outline of books, reveal the scene to take place at a library. In it, neither the human-like figures nor the books have rigid straight lines; both the clothes and the limbs on the human-like figures curve gently and create loose “baggy” subjects. Additionally, at second glance one can make out tiny black human-like figures being used as bookends. After the initial gaze, when analyzing this print the first thing one might focus on is all the generous amount of color. It looks as if there are many different colors throughout, but in reality the majority comes from the primary three: red, yellow, and blue. If one were to divide the print into 4 equal quadrants, the same 3 colors would be in every single one. Because these colors aren’t isolated to one section or object, they seem to be in motion throughout the print. This impression occurs because the same colors that are first seen in one location, when you look at another location, are there again. It is as if they’re traveling throughout the scene, which could easily create the illusion that there are many more colors than there really