Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration series on view at MoMA

NEW YORK (AP) — The Great Migration series by African-American artist Jacob Lawrence is on display in its entirety at a new exhibition.

The 60 narrative paintings are the centerpiece of a larger exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Lawrence was only 23 when he completed the series in 1941. The small paintings depict various scenes of the multi-decade mass exodus of blacks who headed North from the rural South in search of economic opportunity and social equality.

Soon after the paintings were finished, they entered the collections of MoMA and The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Each acquired half.

This is the first time the entire series is on view at MoMA in 20 years. Phillips showed all 60 panels in 2008.

“One-Way Ticket” comes on the centennial of the Great Migration and runs through Sept. 7.