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gef's review against another edition
5.0
We were able to see the show at MoMA last week. Stunning. Lawrence's dramatic, flat-planed unmodulated figures, stark colors and sharp contrasts produce powerful images, each encapsulating a moment in a terrible, wonderful story. Terrible because of the conditions those people (including his own relatives and others he knew, and many he had read about) were so cruel, wonderful in the ways so many of them not only survived but succeeded in retaining and expressing their dignity. It's a wonderful show. The book will be valuable for those who have not had the opportunity to see the real paintings, magnificently displayed all together and in the order Lawrence intended, to tell his powerful story. The additional material — poems by Langston Hughes and others, videos of Marian Anderson and Billie Holiday, recordings by other great black musicians, and other graphic work by Lawrence, Romare Beardon and others, all give context.
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