The Art of the Great Migration

In contrast to the gaudy spectacle that white people would make out lynchings to be, Lawrence depicts the visceral reality of these events, laying it stark and empty and bare. These two panels depict the grief and suffering that those left behind must face. Panel 15, similar to panel 10, emphasizes absence and negative space; the body has been taken, the tree, the sky, and the land are bare, and a curled up mourner sits beneath the tree of death. This bleakness carries on to the next panel, but here grief is presented in a more dramatic fashion. Angular lines direct the viewer’s attention gradually downward, and it seems like the world is crashing down on this mourning woman. Her form is hunched and defeated, constricted by the lines framing her. Though no tears are shown, her sorrow is evident. These panels revert the spectacle of lynching to what it truly is at its core: a violent loss of life that sows undying seeds of pain.