"What Lawrence wanted to do first and foremost was to communicate," says Turner, and throughout his life he would experiment with how best to get his personal message across with power and clarity, not only to the African-American community but also to the world at large.

The stories Lawrence tells in his works range from the upturned expectant faces in "The Street Orator’s Audience," 1936, waiting to receive the message from a speaker whose legs are only visible as he climbs the podium, to "The Builders in the City," 1993, the series on construction workers that Lawrence worked on during the ’80s and ’90s, following his move from Harlem to Seattle. In between, Lawrence weaves an authentic American tapestry of color and feeling: the celebration of menial labor in paintings like "The Ironers," 1943, with its cosmic brew of color and magical form; the psychological complexity of "Vaudeville," 1951, a densely patterned work that explores the debilitating cost of performing in blackface; and the quiet social protest of "Praying Ministers," 1962, which exemplifies the "beautiful struggle" of the Civil Rights Movement while never ignoring its brutality.

"In these paintings, you have the face of the community, the gesture of the performer, the psychology of the game and the dignity and strength of work," Turner says. "Underlying it all is the idea of builders, almost as if Lawrence came to the realization that what he’s doing by communicating and connecting with his audience, he is building something. And that something’s not finished. But he’s got a part of it, a rhythm, a harmony, a purpose. There’s a wonderful integrity from beginning to end."